We're Really Gonna Have a Baby
by nickynicholslornamorello
Summary: Nicky and Lorna think about starting a family
1. Chapter 1

It was just another night in the Nichols/Morello household. They were in marital bliss as always. Nicky had just fucked Lorna until she was a loud, moaning mess and now they were watching TV while trying to fall asleep. In pretty much every way their life together was perfect. They loved the apartment they lived in. They loved that they lived so close to Alex and Piper. They were so in love with each other and so happy, yet there was one issue they could never agree on. It had been 2 long month of Lorna badgering Nicky. Every time they'd walk down the street and pass a baby it was start again.

"Aw, Nick, look how cute! Oh I want one! Isn't he cute, Nick?"

"Yeah, yeah, cute. It's cute"

Lorna would send Nicky little hints.

"Do you think the guest room would look better if it was pink or blue?"

"Hypothetically, if we were gonna put a crib in here, where do you think it would go?"

And now, as they were supposed to be trying to fall asleep, it was happening again.

"Come on, Nick, babies are so adorable!"

"Kid, I don't like babies"

"Aw you'd like your own baby! It's different when it's yours"

"Ugh I just want to go to sleep"

"Is that really your whole reason? You just don't like babies? Cause they don't stay babies forever, ya know. In a couple years it'd be like a real person that you can watch TV with and teach dirty jokes to. And don't tell me you wouldn't like that because I know you love that stuff. You did both of those things with me just today!"

Nicky stayed quiet and put her head down as if she was really thinking about it.

After awhile Nicky responded. "I don't know if I can kid" she said so quietly that Lorna could barely even hear her.

Sensing that Nicky was upset, Lorna put her hand on top of Nicky's and gave it a good, comforting squeeze.

"What? I don't understand, Nick"

"I had a terrible family life and I almost didn't survive because of it. I wouldn't know how to be a mother. I never had an example of a good mother. I couldn't put someone through that."  
"Nick, your mother was never an example of how to be a good person either, but you're the sweetest person I know. You would do anything for me or Red or Alex. I know that. I also know that you will love your own baby. You just will- I know it. You're not a bitter, angry person like your mother, so you would have a normal person's reaction and fall in love with your kid. And then I know you'd do anything for that kid just like you'd do anything for me.

Nicky stayed silent and continued to look down.

"Nick, I don't just wanna have a kid for the sake of having a kid. I wanna have a kid with you cause I can picture our family together. I love you so much and I wouln't want to make you uncomfortable, so if you still really hate the idea then we won't do it and I'll stop asking. But just don't sell yourself short, ok? You would be such a good mom. Besides you do have an example of a good mom. You can be like Red."

"Ok." Nicky said as she started to look up.

"Ok?"  
"Yeah, okay. We can do it. We can have a baby." Nicky said as her face broke into a wide grin. For the first time the idea was starting to actually sound appealing.

"AHHH!" Lorna squealed as she pulled Nicky into a tight hug. "We're really gonna have a baby!"

"Yes, we're really gonna have a baby" Nicky kissed Lorna's cheek as she held her tight.


	2. Chapter 2

"What about this guy? He's a scientist, so he must be really smart!"

"Lorna, that guy's got flaming red hair. We're not having a little, ginger baby. It's not happening"

"Fine, then what about this guy? He's got nice, blue eyes and hes not a ginger"

"Baby, he has a twin. That means twins run in his family. Do you really want two babies clawing their way out of your vag?"

"Oh wow good point"

Nicky and Lorna had been looking through the list of sperm donors for what seemed like hours. There was just no one that they deemed good enough to father their child. After another 30 minutes of rejecting every sperm donor available, they finally found someone.

"Hey, babe, what about this guy? He's in med school, so he's probably really fucking smart. He's not a twin. He doesn't have any history of heart disease or cancer in his family. "

"Let me see!" Lorna squealed as she ripped the page away from Nicky. "Oh this guy is hot! We'd have such a cute kid!"

"I wouldn't say he's hot. He's probably okay as far as guys go but like-"

"Aw, Nick, are you jealous that I thought that guy was hot" Lorna started laughing

"Don't flatter yourself alright, I just don't see what the big deal is with him" Nicky said, but she couldn't even look at Lorna.

"You're jealous!" Lorna had the biggest grin on her face as she teased her wife. "Aw Nick you're hot too! You're very hot! And you look SO cute when I do this!" Lorna started to tickle Nicky and Nicky couldn't help laughing and kicking her feet. Eventually the tickling turned into kissing, because that was always how Nicky got Lorna to stop tickling her, and then the kissing turned into… well something Nicky was quite good at. Like top notch.

Awhile later while Nicky and Lorna were putting their clothes back on, they agreed on the hot med school guy as their sperm donor. They were one step closer to starting a family together.


	3. Chapter 3

"Happy Birthday, kid!" Nicky rasped as she handed Lorna her present.

The card was so inappropriate, so Nicky. It had a picture of a bowl of fruit on the outside and on the inside Nicky had written "I love you almost as much as I love eating your ripe fruit". Lorna laughed wholeheartedly and gave Nicky a kiss before opening the present.

"AHHHH YAY! AW NICKY YOU'RE THE BEST!" Lorna jumped up and down with excitement. Lorna had in her hands 2 tickets to see West Side Story on broadway.  
"Now I know the tickets are for two weeks from now, but I still figured you'd want them, yeah?"  
"Are you serious? Of course I want them!" Lorna gave Nicky another kiss and thanked her for her gift. "Wait a minute. Two tickets? Does that mean you're gonna sit through West Side Story with me?" Lorna asked with the biggest smile on her face, practically giddy at the idea of watching her favorite play on broadway with Nicky.

"Yeah, ya know, I figured you're worth it. I can sit through show tunes this one time to make you happy. Maybe I'll even bring earplugs and just watch you the whole time."

"Yeah I don't see anything wrong with that plan, Nick" Lorna laughed.

Just as they were about to head out for Lorna's special birthday brunch, Lorna got an idea.

"Hey Nick, I know the doctor said we'd have to wait 2 weeks to see if I'm pregnant or not, but that's only 2 days away. Why don't we stop off and pick up a pregnancy test?"

"You really wanna put yourself through that on your birthday? If it can't tell yet you're just gonna be disappointed."

"No I won't! Really! I'll just know that I'll be finding out in 2 days! I promise I'll be fine, Nick!"

Nicky looked at how excited Lorna was and had to give in.

"Alright, kid, then let's go get you a pregnancy test."

Nicky was willing to play along and let Lorna have fun on her birthday. She was also prepared to console Lorna when it didn't work.

* * *

They were both standing there nervously in the bathroom of Lorna's favorite brunch place.

"How long did it say it would take?" Lorna asked impatiently

"2 minutes"

"This is the longest 2 minutes ever!

Nicky could already sense how upset Lorna was about to be and she was dreading seeing Lorna upset on her birthday. She was having such a great day until she got this brilliant idea. Nicky was practically scolding herself for agreeing to this idea.

Just as Nicky was about to start soothing Lorna, a little, pink plus sign showed up on the test.

They both stared at it wide-eyed, not even sure that it was correct.

"Wait, what the fuck. Lorna, does that mean?"

"I'm pregnant!" Lorna cried with excitement

"Holy shit, baby! You did it!"

The couple hugged and kissed for a long while. Long enough to cause the people who were waiting outside to bang the door in frustration.

"Yeah I get it you have to pee, but we don't care so shut the fuck up! My wife's pregnant!" Nicky screamed, not bothering to let go of Lorna's embrace just yet.


	4. Chapter 4

It was only 6 am when Nicky felt Lorna kissing her awake. The couple shared a sweet kiss as Nicky's eyes started to open.

"Well that was a nice way to wake up." Nicky said smiling

"I'm pregnant! I'm too excited to sleep in!" Lorna squealed

Nicky laughed as she pulled Lorna closer and gave her a big kiss on the forehead.

"You're really cute, you know that?"

"Yeah I have my moments" Lorna replied as she pulled Nicky into another kiss.

Nicky eventually pulled away and was smiling like an idiot at this point. And it was only 6 am! Normally if Nicky was awake at this time she'd be in an awful mood, barking at everyone.

"You're the only person who can get me to smile this early you know that?"

Lorna smiled as she leapt out of bed.

About 20 minutes later Lorna came marching back into the room.

"Nick you should get up soon. We're going to Franny's for a congratulations breakfast"

"A congratulations breakfast? What the fuck is that? What are we even congratulating her for?"

"No she's congratulating us! For being pregnant"

"How does she even know about that yet we just found out yesterday?"

"I texted her last night" Lorna said as she looked away embarrassed.

Nicky started to laugh.

"You couldn't even keep the secret for one day, kid?"

"I'm sorry I'm just too excited!"

Nicky had the biggest grin on her face as she got up and tucked Lorna's hair behind her ear and said "Man, you are so fucking cute".

* * *

Franny's was nice. Nicky of course liked all the food. She even liked going over to Franny's lately. Ever since Nicky and Lorna got married and Franny saw for herself how happy Lorna was, she absolutely loved Nicky. She said that anyone who made her baby sister so happy was high on her list of favorites. After a good meal and exciting chatter about maternity clothes and baby names, they were off.

* * *

A few hours later Nicky heard a knock on the door and Alex and Piper appeared with trays and trays of cookies.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" they cheered as Nicky opened the door.

"Lorna! You told more people!?"

Lorna laughed as she took a cookie and invited their friends in.

* * *

Later that night they were cuddling up in bed.

"So should I just assume that by the end of the week everyone we know will know that you're pregnant?"

"I'm sorry. I can stop telling people if you really want, Nick, it's just so much fun to tell everyone!"

Nicky laughed and said "nooo no I don't care! Really, it doesn't bother me. I just think it's funny that's all. Maybe we can tell Red together tomorrow? She'd love to hear that she's having a grandchild."

Nicky grinned from ear to ear as she held Lorna. She couldn't imagine her life getting any better.

* * *

The next day Nicky had work. She was going to meet up with Lorna after to go to Red's for dinner and announce their big news. She was so excited all day at work. All she had wanted to do was stay home with Lorna that day.

But meanwhile at home…

Lorna was in the bathroom and looked at the toilet paper. Blood? That doesn't make sense. She was pregnant- she couldn't have her period. Lorna figured maybe it was spotting and went about her day.

But later on she had a stomachache and when she went to the bathroom again, there was more blood. Lorna knew what this had to be. It was definitely not good news. She and Nicky had been so happy and now everything was ruined. Lorna started to cry. Nicky would be home in an hour and Lorna was going to just sit there and cry until she returned.

 _I know that everyone is going to hate me once they get to this message. Stay put though! More chapters to come and I promise I'm not evil so there's hope!_


	5. Chapter 5

"Baby, I'm home! I'm gonna just change really fast so we can make it to Red's on time. You know how fucking annoying she is whenever we're late"

Nicky starts walking towards the bedroom to get changed as she imitates Red with a terrible Russian accent.

"There is no excuse for being late. When you make plans and decide on a time, that is the time you are supposed to show up." Nicky laughs at her awful impression while scrambling to change her shoes as fast as possible.

All of a sudden she hears Lorna crying in the bathroom. Immediately, Nicky rushes to find her. 

"Baby, what's the matter? Are you okay?"

"I'm bleeding!" Lorna manages to get out through her hysterical sobs.

"What do you mean? Did you fall? I don't see blood."

Lorna just keeps crying as Nicky rushes over to console her.

"Do you think you'd be more comfortable sitting on our bed? C'mon let's get up. Does your stomach hurt or something? Is that why we're in the bathroom?"  
Nicky was completely confused about what was going on.

"Yes. My stomach hurts, Nick. My stomach hurts and I'm bleeding" Lorna cried as she pointed down towards the toilet beneath her.

"Wait, you mean you're bleeding like" Nicky's eyes widened as she realized what was going on. "Fuck! Okay. It's okay, baby. I'm gonna go call the doctor. Everything will be ok!"

Nicky ran to find her cell phone and the doctor's number.

"Hurry, Nick. Please. Please hurry" Lorna sobbed. 

A few minutes later Nicky returned.

"Okay the doctor isn't answering right now and I don't think we should just sit and wait for her to call back. Let's go to the hospital, ok? It's probably nothing. I'm sure everything's fine, but this way we'll know tonight"

Nicky managed to get Lorna up and into the car. As she drove to the hospital, it was all she could do to keep her cool for Lorna.

* * *

Lorna was lying on a hospital bed and Nicky was sitting in a chair right next to her, stroking her wife's arm in an effort to try and calm her down. As the doctor ran tests, Nicky managed to give Lorna a smile. She hoped the look on her face was saying to Lorna "it's okay, you're doing great" and not what she was really thinking which was "please just let my wife and baby be okay". She was trying not to notice the concerned look that the doctor had on her face the whole time she was examining Lorna.

When they finally got the news, Nicky couldn't even hear it. She heard the word "miscarriage" but nothing that came before or after it. She tried to pay attention to the doctor's explanation, but she just couldn't. She was just looking at her wife, who was clearly trying so hard to keep it together, but failing miserably.

"I'll give you two some time." the doctor said as she headed out the door. 

When Lorna finally let her tears out, it was like they exploded. Nicky had never seen her cry like that. She immediately hugged Lorna as tight as she possibly could as she started rubbing her back.

"I'm sorry, Nick" Lorna sobbed.

"You don't have to be sorry, babe. You didn't do anything. This is not your fault."  
Lorna clearly wasn't listening, though because she just kept apologizing over and over again until Nicky couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, look at me." Nicky backed up a little bit so she could see Lorna's face. "You did not do this, okay. This is not your fault. Please stop apologizing, baby. You have nothing to be sorry for."  
"But I'm"

"No. No way. You're not allowed to apologize for this. In fact, if you keep saying you're sorry, I'm hiding your West Side Story Tickets."

Nicky had no idea why she was making jokes right now, but it was the only thing she could think to do. Apparently, it worked. Or at least it worked a little bit, because for a split second, she swears she sees Lorna crack a little smile.

"There we go. That's what I like to see" Nicky kissed Lorna's head and squeezed next to her on the tiny hospital bed. "You never have to be sorry for something like this, ok? I'm always here for you. You're not gonna have to go through this alone."

* * *

Later that night, Nicky and Lorna were on the couch trying to find some TV show that would distract them from all that was happening. Nicky was holding back tears, trying to remain strong for Lorna while Lorna was trying the best she could to convince herself that it wasn't her fault. Suddenly someone was at the door.

Nicky walked outside to a very angry Red.

"So first you don't even show up to my house for dinner and now you're not answering my calls either!"  
"Oh shit, mom I forgot. I'm sorry. I haven't even looked at my phone."

Nicky looked back to make sure Lorna couldn't see who had come to the door. In a very quiet voice she said, "Look, now is really not a good time." Nicky didn't want Lorna to remember that they were supposed to share their happy news with Red tonight.

It must have been apparent to Red that something was really wrong because she dropped the anger-bit immediately and instead looked at Nicky with eyes full of concern.

"What's wrong? Which one of my daughters is hurt?"  
"Mom, I really can't get into it right now. I'm sorry we didn't show up. How bout I call you tomorrow, okay?" Nicky quickly shut the door and went back to Lorna who was already asleep on the couch, no doubt exhausted from the long day. Nicky curled up next to her and gave her a big kiss. 

Somewhere around 3 in the morning, Lorna woke up confused about where she was. When she remembered what had happened, she tucked herself deep into Nicky's side, needing the closeness. Nicky, who had clearly not gotten a wink of sleep, wanted desperately to find something to say to Lorna. She wanted to say something to make the whole situation better, to make all of the pain go away. Instead, Nicky just tightened her arms around Lorna, holding her as close as she possibly could.

* * *

The next day, Lorna went over to Franny's to be comforted by her big sister and Nicky took the opportunity to call Red. She explained what had happened and Red was by Nicky's side immediately.

"Oh, my daughter, I'm so sorry!"  
"Lorna's a mess, ma, I really don't know what to do I just-"

"Nicky, concentrate on yourself for a minute. Look at you. You look like you haven't even been to sleep yet. Talk to me about how you are feeling.

"How I'm feeling? Okay, I'll talk about how I feel. I am really fucking upset, okay!?" Nicky was almost yelling in frustration

"I am really fucking upset, but I can't be. Lorna's not okay and one of us has to be the strong one! I'd do anything for her. I can stay strong through this. I just need her to be alright." Nicky said fighting back tears  
"Nicky, you are a very strong, stubborn girl, but you don't have to be so strong through this. I'm a parent. I know how much you can love your children."

Red pulled her into a hug and Nicky started sobbing.

"I don't know what to do, ma"

"You'll deal with it day by day. Eventually it'll get easier."


	6. Chapter 6

Time had gone by and everything seemed to be moving on. Lorna and Nicky were back to their normal routine. To anyone who didn't know about the pregnancy, it would seem as though nothing had happened. To Lorna and Nicky, however, it was painfully obvious that things were not back to normal. Sure they moved on with their lives and acted as though everything was okay, but it wasn't really. They never talked about what the next step would be. They never even discussed the miscarriage at all. Any talk of babies had completely stopped. Neither of them knew what to say. How would they even begin to have this conversation? Both of them had the urge to try for a baby again, but neither had the courage to speak up about it. Nicky didn't want to push Lorna to try again if she wasn't ready and Lorna didn't want to put Nicky through the whole process again if there was even a chance something would go wrong. One day, however, Lorna realized they couldn't tiptoe around the subject anymore. She decided to finally bring it up.

"So, now I guess the guest room won't be a nursery. Any idea what to put in there?"

This was it, Nicky thought. She had to speak up now or she would never get the chance to.

"Well we don't have to completely throw out the idea of it being a nursery just yet. It could be a nursery eventually. If you would want it to be, I mean."

"Do you still want it to be a nursery?"

"I don't want to do anything that you're uncomfortable with."

The couple remained silent for a little while, both unsure about what to say.

"Nicky, I don't want to get your hopes up. I don't want to get you all excited about a nursery just to take it away again at the last minute. I can't do that to you."

"Baby, you didn't take it away from me before. I thought we went over this. You had no control over that, okay? That was not your fault."

"Nooo no, I know. I just. I'm the reason you got so excited about the pregnancy. You didn't even want a baby before I kept begging you about it. So if it weren't for me convincing you to want a baby, there would've been nothing to be sad about."

Nicky took a deep breath and squeezed Lorna's hand between her own.

"Kid, I need you to understand something. You didn't convince me to want a baby, okay? I'm a very fucking stubborn person. You really should know that by now. So if I had been totally, completely against having a baby, you wouldn't have been able to convince me to want one. All you did was make me realize that I was just scared."

"Yeah, well now I'm scared, Nick."

"I know. And you have every right to be scared. I'm scared too. But, ya know, usually when you're scared about something, it means that you're onto something important. So, yes, it is a big, fucking scary step. But it's probably a step worth taking and at least we'll be scared of it together."

"I don't want you to be upset if it doesn't work."

"And I don't want you to be upset if it doesn't work either. But, baby, there's nothing that says it's not gonna work. The doctor said this shit happens sometimes. And it sucks when it happens. It's an awful thing that no one should have to go through, but people do go through it all the time and usually there's no rhyme or reason for it. It's not a sign that you won't be able to be pregnant again."

"Yeah well we should probably check that out before we pay for implantation again."

"Well if you definitely want to do this then we can set up an appointment tomorrow."

"Okay. Tomorrow" Lorna replied trying to sound upbeat. She wanted to be positive, but she was more terrified than ever.

* * *

So Nicky and Lorna went to a fertility specialist. Nicky had taken the morning off of work to go with Lorna for support. It was so tense in there, everyone in the waiting room seemed so nervous. The office was running behind schedule, too, which didn't help because it made the wait so much longer. But Nicky and Lorna waited patiently. They waited patiently for an hour and a half until finally Nicky had to call into work to say she was going to have to take the whole day off.

"Nick, just go into work this is ridiculous. You can't do anything anyway it's not like they need you for tests."

"I know, but I'm staying. Lorna this is a fucking depressing place I'm not leaving you here alone."

"Nick, I'll be fine. I promise." Lorna gave Nicky the best fake smile she could give.

"Yeah, nice try. I know you way too well for that to work. Just sit down and stop worrying about me, okay? It's already done. I called out of work and now I'm yours for the day whether you like it or not."

Lorna gave Nicky a quick kiss. "I guess I can handle being with you all day. I mean, if I really have to."

Nicky and Lorna smiled at each other as once again took a seat in the most daunting waiting room they'd ever been in.

* * *

After a long day of tests, they were so glad to finally be home. Lorna plopped down on the couch while Nicky ordered a pizza. The annoying part was over and now they just had to wait for results.

As they were shoving pizza slices into their mouths the phone rang. It was not a number they recognized. Nicky and Lorna looked at each other and froze, both suddenly so panicked about what they could possibly find out.

"You answer it, Nick, I can't."

So Nicky grabbed the phone.

"Well, kid, you just got some great news."

"Really?!" Lorna asked excitedly

"Yeah, you're completely fine. In fact, they were raving about how great everything looked. I think the words "fertile as fuck" were actually used."

"Oh thank God!" Lorna ran to give Nicky a hug. "I love you so much, Nick. Thanks for staying with me today."

"No problem, kid. Comes with the territory" Nicky replied as she hugged Lorna tightly. "I told you. I'm never making you go through this shit alone."

So they were ready to give it another go. Though they were both extremely nervous as they went in for the second implantation, at least they were actually doing it. Maybe finally things were starting to be right again.


	7. Chapter 7

When Lorna found out she was pregnant this time, it was nowhere near as exciting. Of course they were happy about it, but it was nowhere close to thehappiness that the couple shared the first time they found out when they were howling with excitement in a restaurant bathroom. This time, they hugged, they were happy, but there was an underlying feeling of fear. Instead of thoughts of pure joy entering Lorna's mind, the thoughts were more like "how long am I gonna be pregnant for this time? 9 months or 9 days?" Of course, Lorna and Nicky were still happy. They were really happy. They were discussing where all the furniture would go in the nursery and thinking of baby names. It was just different this time. This time it was just the two of them that knew. Lorna didn't text Franny right away. She didn't text anyone at all. She didn't want to have to tell everyone again if this one didn't work out. "Just get to 3 months," she thought. 3 months is when it's safe to tell people because then it's past the point where a miscarriage would normally occur. 3 months was actually coming up faster than she thought it would. Nicky had gotten a promotion and so between celebrating Nicky's news and talking about the baby, the 3 months were passing rather quickly.

* * *

Nicky was so protective of Lorna, it was adorable. The second they had found out she was expecting, Nicky stopped allowing Lorna to walk home from work alone.

"It's starting to get dark earlier and earlier and you could trip and fall" she had explained.

Despite Lorna's protests that she would be absolutely fine, Nicky insisted on meeting Lorna at work every night and walking home with her. Nicky had to practically pass their apartment on the way to meet up with Lorna, but she didn't care. She knew she would never forgive herself if something actually did happen to Lorna when she wasn't there to help her. So, no matter what, Nicky met up with her every night.

* * *

Before they knew it, the 3 months had arrived. Lorna's 3-month appointment was the next day and she was so nervous she couldn't handle it.

"Nick, if everything's good tomorrow we can finally tell people! I'm so excited- it's been so hard not to tell people! I just need everything to be okay."

"It will be baby, I know it. You didn't even make it this far last time. If something was gonna happen, it would have already happened. I'm telling you, everything is gonna be great and then tomorrow night we're gonna celebrate!"

"Maybe we could invite everyone for dinner and tell them?"

"Yeah, that sounds great, kid"

They kissed goodnight and went to sleep. Well, they kind of went to sleep. They were both far too anxious to actually fall asleep, but they both pretended.

* * *

They were at Lorna's OBGYN appointment and Lorna was practically shaking in the stirrups she was so nervous.

"Relax, baby. I'm telling you, it's gonna be fine." Nicky said in an effort to soothe Lorna although she knew it was pointless. Lorna would be nervous until the doctor told her everything was normal, there was nothing else that was going to calm her down.

Nicky took Lorna's hand as the doctor gave her an ultrasound. When the picture appeared on the screen, Lorna could not believe it.

"It's really in there. It's still there, it's still okay?!" she asked.

"Yes, your baby is doing tremendously well" the doctor replied.

Lorna and Nicky simultaneously breathed sighs of relief. Lorna laughed as she looked at Nicky.

"You were nervous? You seemed so calm!"

"Kid, I'm never calm when it comes to you or our baby. There's nothing in the world that I care more about." The couple just stared at each other in pure adoration until they started to hear a beating sound.

"That is your baby's heart beat" The doctor said cheerfully

"Holy shit" Nicky muttered in disbelief. She couldn't help the huge, stupid smile that was forming on her face. Lorna started to cry.

"Wow it's really happening this time, isn't it? We're actually gonna be parents!"

"Yes you are" replied the doctor as he left to give them a minute alone together.

Nicky looked at Lorna with tears in her eyes.

"You did it, baby. I knew you could do it."

"We did it, Nick. You helped me so much in these last bunch of months. I really don't know what I'd do without you. You're amazing"

Nicky gave Lorna a big kiss and then rested her forehead against Lorna's. They were both so unbelievable happy.

* * *

That night, Red, Alex, Piper, and Franny came over. Red was cooking, of course. As everyone sat down to dinner, they decided to make their announcement.

"So we invited you all here for a reason. We're so close with all of you, so it was so hard to keep this a secret for the last few months, but we're gonna have a baby! For real this time." Lorna announced with the biggest smile on her face. Nicky proudly wrapped her arm around Lorna's waist. Everyone was immediately so excited and filled with joy. Red walked over and pulled both of them into a tight hug.

"My grandchild" she said, as tears filled her eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

Lorna was reading every pregnancy book know to man. She knew exactly what she was supposed to do and exactly what she was not supposed to do. There's one thing the books don't tell you though: pregnancy makes you REALLY fucking horny.

Nicky and Lorna were having more sex than ever before- who knew that was even possible! They would have sex in the morning, they would have sex at night, and they would even have sex in the middle of the day when they didn't work. This particular morning, however, Nicky had to go into work early for a meeting. Lorna knew this, but she still figured she'd try. The moment Nicky's alarm went off, Lorna started peppering her kisses.

"Lorna, I can't do this right now. I'm sorry. You know I have a meeting"

"Come on, Nick. Please! I need to!"

Lorna flipped herself on top of Nicky (the best she could with her belly that was forming) and started kissing her neck. Despite the fact that Nicky knew she had to get up, she could help closing her eyes and enjoying it for a moment.

"You play dirty you know that? Kid, you're killing me."

"Come on, Nick! Really fast I promise!" Lorna said as she started gently biting her neck.

"Oh God" Nicky moaned. She couldn't help herself. "Fine. But really, really fucking fast, kid. Like warp speed."

Nicky and Lorna had basically swapped positions. It was normally Nicky who had a seemingly-endless sex drive and was always begging for it. It was funny how the tables had turned, even though it was just temporary.

* * *

Nicky hurried into her meeting, surprisingly only 5 minutes late, with a hickey on her neck. Her friend at work took the opportunity to mock her.

"A hickey?! Are you 14?"

"Yeah, alright. You're just jealous you didn't get laid at 7 in the morning"

Then it all of a sudden made sense for her friend.

"Oh I forgot Lorna's pregnant. Is she like 5 months along?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Cause I've been there. You lucky fuck you're probably having so much sex. I forgot how bad I needed it when I was 5 months pregnant. I've never had that much sex in my life"

Nicky smiled to herself. Wow, not only did pregnancy come with a baby at the end, but the whole process was also full of exciting sex. She could definitely get used to this.


	9. Chapter 9

At Lorna's next doctor's appointment, they learned they were having a girl. Nicky was completely relieved. "Oh thank God! I don't know what the fuck I would've done with a guy in the house."

Once they knew that the baby was a girl, they figured they could start to talk about names. They had no idea what a huge process that would end up being.

"Maria?"

"No"

"Anita?"

"Kid, stop naming West Side Story characters. We're not naming our baby after a character from a musical"

"Fine what are some of your ideas"

"Well I was thinking we could name her after someone famous, ya know. Like Beyonce."

"You wanna name our baby Beyonce?"

"Yeah don't you see the genius in that? It's like she's already set up to be famous. If anyone meets a person names Beyonce they automatically think 'oh this person must be talented'."

"You're just fucking with me right?"

"No I was serious, but clearly you don't like that idea then."

"No absolutely not."

"Okay then I guess it's back to the drawing board."

Nicky and Morello had been trying to agree on a baby names all week. It was even worse than the whole sperm donor debacle because the sperm donors were at least a set group of guys they had to choose from. In the case of baby names, the choices were endless

* * *

When they finally did come up with a name, it happened in the weirdest way. They weren't trying to come up with ideas or anything, they were just out to dinner.

"Hi, my name is Sophie and I'll be your waitress tonight. Can I take your order?"

"Sophie!" they immediately both exclaimed as they looked at each other.

"Yes. Can I take your order?" Their waitress repeated, so confused about what was happening.

"Oh, um no thanks, Sophie. We're still looking at the menu for now"

The second the waitress walked away, Lorna and Nicky immediately started laughing. They had just named their baby and freaked out their waitress all in one. Job well done.


	10. Chapter 10

It was Friday Night and Nicky and Lorna were deciding what type of food to order.

"We could always just get a pizza"

"Ew no. I'm not in the mood for all that cheese my stomach's been bothering me today."

"Okay, how about chinese?"

"yuck"

"pasta?"

Lorna looked disgusted at the thought of pasta.

"Okay, baby, this might go a little faster if you just tell me what you want to eat."

"I don't know. I can't tell what I want."

Lorna thought about it for a minute.

"I feel like I kind of want soup or something? Yes! That's it! I'm so in the mood for chicken noodle soup from that café place we go to!"

"Okay, chicken noodle soup it is then. I'll pick up an actual dinner along with it, okay? Cause that shit is not gonna fill you up while you're pregnant"

So Nicky left to go get dinner for the two of them. 

When she returned Lorna was making mac and cheese.

"I thought you wanted soup? Doesn't your stomach feel too weird for something so cheesy?"

"I know that's what I thought, but all of a sudden I just really wanted mac and cheese"

"Okay well chicken noodle soup and mac and cheese is kinda a weird combo but what the hell, right? You ate prison food for 3 years, your stomach has been through worse."

""Yeah, Nick, I don't think really want the soup anymore. I'm sorry I shouldn't have made you go out and get it"

Nicky just shrugged and said "Don't worry about it! More for me then!"

* * *

The next day Nicky was making lunch. Lorna entered the room and started gagging at the sight of the turkey sandwich Nicky was currently making.

"Doesn't look too appetizing, huh?"

"Ugh all the meat is making me feel queasy" Lorna said as she ran out of the room towards the bathroom.

A few hours later…

"Hey, Nick, do we have any more of the turkey you had for lunch?"

"No I threw the rest of it out cause it made you feel sick."

"Aw okay."

"What?"

"Nothing I just kinda wanted a turkey sandwich now."

"Seriously? The sight of it made you puke just a few hours ago."

"Yeah, but now it sounds so good!"

"Okay, I'll be right back."

"No, Nick, don't go out to the store now. That's ridiculous. I can just eat what we have."

"Babe, the store is so close. You should be able to eat what you want. I'll be back soon."

Nicky gave her a quick peck before she left to go buy more turkey.

* * *

A couple of days they were out to dinner with Alex and Piper.

"Ohh let's get dessert guys! I've been craving sweets so bad lately."

"You have? I didn't know that. You should've told me I would've gone to get you something."

"Aww that's okay, it wasn't a big deal. We can just get it now!"

So the four of them had dessert before leaving.

"Was that good, Lorna?" Piper asked

"Oh yeah. That was so good! You know what really sounds good though are those strawberry pop tart things I used to eat as a kid. I think I'll go get a box of them tomorrow after work."

"I can get you those now, kid." Nicky offered

"No, no don't. I can just go tomorrow. I'm not even hungry right now."

"That's okay. I'll go get them anyway. That way you don't have to go tomorrow."

"No, Nick. I'm not letting you go out and pick up food for me anymore. It's very nice of you, but my cravings are insane. I can't even promise I'm still gonna want the food by the time you get back"

"Yeah, well you're pregnant. You're allowed to be a little picky."

"Nick, just cause I'm pregnant doesn't mean that you have to wait on me hand and foot. I feel too bad letting you do that."

"Don't feel bad. I wanna do it."

* * *

The next day, Nicky came home with a ridiculous amount of groceries.

"Holy shit, Nick, did you buy out the whole store."

"I got you everything I think you could possibly ever be craving. At least for the next couple weeks or so."

Lorna looked through the bags. She saw pop tarts, cookies, ice cream, chips, a bunch of different soups, kraft macaroni and cheese, pickles, frozen pizzas, bananas, apples, oranges, peanut butter, cold cuts, pasta, rice, potatoes, cereal, eggs, and really pretty much every other type of food she's ever eaten.

"Nicky this is ridiculous!"

"No it's not. I want you to be able to eat exactly what you want when you want it. You're clearly not telling me every time you have a craving because you feel bad making me go out. So, the only way I can be sure you have all of the food you want is to just make it all available at once."

"Why are you the sweetest person ever?" Lorna asked as she gave Nicky a big kiss.

She took one more look at the groceries and immediately started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm just picturing you going down every aisle of the store and grabbing one of everything. People must have thought you were insane!" she laughed as she leaned in to give Nicky another kiss. "Thank you that was really sweet of you." 

That night, the two of them sat by the TV watching Game of Thrones, each with their own cartown of ice cream and box of cookies.


	11. Chapter 11

It was a normal Saturday afternoon. Lorna and Nicky were just hanging out at home watching movies. Lorna was eating an orange lying with her head on Nicky's lap while Nicky rubbed her belly. All of a sudden, Lorna's belly started moving.

"Lorna what are you doing?"  
"That's not me doing that, the baby's moving around"  
"Woah that's so weird!" Nicky exclaimed as she went back to rubbing Lorna's belly, this time she felt around for where the baby was moving. She though it felt really fucking cool.

Nicky became obsessed with feeling the baby through Lorna's stomach. Any time Lorna would feel the baby doing anything, Nicky would come running. They came to notice a pattern. Any time Lorna ate oranges or drank orange juice, the baby would start moving like crazy. So, Lorna started eating oranges every day.

"I think she just really fucking likes oranges or something." Nicky explained to Alex while they were out to lunch one day.

"You know you better be careful about that. If your baby eats too many oranges, she could come out with orange skin" Alex joked

"Wait, fuck, really?"  
"No! Nichols are you really that much of a gullible idiot" Alex laughed

Nicky scowled. "I'm not gullible I just want to make absolutely fucking sure that my baby won't be orange is that so horrible?"

Alex kept laughing

"So, you're sure eating that many oranges won't do anything bad to her? I mean it has been a shit load of oranges"  
"Aw look at you! You're already a concerned parent. It's so cute." Alex teased  
"Shut the fuck up, Vause"

That night, Nicky googled, "can eating too many oranges hurt a baby" just to make sure. No way she'd ever tell Vause though.


	12. Chapter 12

"Oh my God, I am so uncomfortable! I'm huge! I can't even fucking move! My stomach won't fit anywhere!" Lorna yelled in frustration

"I know, kid, but you only have like a week left. You'll feel better soon."

Lorna starts whimpering, "My feet hurt! My feet always hurt now. And I can't sleep. I can't get comfortable enough to sleep cause I can't lie on my fucking stomach!"

"Come here, babe." Nicky pulls her into a hug. "I know you've been uncomfortable lately. You're almost done, though. You're doing great."

"I'm so tired. I just wanna be able to sleep again" Lorna cried while holding onto Nicky.

"Yeah well I'm not gonna lie, you're probably not gonna get much more sleep once the baby's born. But I can try to help you with that now. How bout we try to take a nap?"

So they turned the lights out and closed all of the blinds and attempted to fall asleep. Nicky was rubbing Lorna's arm and giving her little kisses every so often in the dark room and Lorna finally felt calm again. She was just starting to fall asleep, when she noticed that her pants felt wet.

"Um, Nicky"

"Yeah, kid?"

"I think my water just broke"

"Um. Are sure?"

"Well, either that or I just pissed my pants"

"Shit. Okay. Um. Okay." Nicky stammered as she tried to sit up. She could barely move, it was like she was frozen still. This was the moment they had been waiting for, but now that it was here, she had no idea what to do."

"We need to get you up and go to the hospital." Nicky said after a minute, once she had gained control of her body again.

"Of course she has to come now, right when I was finally going to sleep. This kid is gonna be trouble I know it" Lorna laughed

* * *

Lorna was lying in the hospital bed calm as could be. Nicky, on the other hand, looked completely freaked out and was taking big, deep breaths.

"You okay, Nick?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm great, kid." Nicky said while nervously tapping her foot on the ground.

"Nick, its gonna be okay. We're gonna be good at this, I'm telling you." Lorna says while grabbing Nicky's hand.

Nicky started laughing. "Damn, you'd think I'm the one in labor by how I'm acting. How the fuck are you so calm?"

"They gave me drugs remember"

* * *

Hours and hours later, Lorna was a sweaty mess trying to push her baby out. Nicky was basically in shock during the entire thing. She just stood there, wide eyed in disbelief not moving a muscle except for when she would occasionally call out, "you're doing great, kid" when she could sense that Lorna was struggling.

And then all of a sudden, before she even knew what was happening, the doctor was placing the baby on Lorna's stomach. Lorna immediately started crying at the feeling of her baby lying on top of her and Nicky rushed over to get a better look.

They were both just staring at their new baby, completely unable to speak.

The baby was exactly like Lorna. Very small (only 5 pounds), pale skin, brown hair (well the few little hairs that she had), and a face that looked completely identical to Lorna's.

"She's amazing" Lorna finally said, not bothering to look away from Sophie. "Can you believe this, Nick?"

"No. I really can't. She's perfect"

Nicky was staring at her in complete awe. She couldn't believe how much she loved this baby already. In that moment, she knew Lorna had been right. She would do absolutely anything for this kid.

"You did great, babe. I'm so proud of you."

Lorna and Nicky looked up from the baby for a moment and shared a soft kiss. When Lorna went to pull away, Nicky immediately stopped her.

"Hey, come back here I wasn't done yet" Nicky said pulling her back into a kiss.

* * *

A couple of hours later Alex and Piper arrived to see the baby.

"Aw, she's so cute!" They exclaimed

"How was it Lorna? Is it really as bad as everyone says?" Piper asked

"No it really was not bad at all"

"Yeah, she was totally amazing. I was a complete mess." Nicky chimed in.

Alex went over to where Nicky was holding the baby to get a better look at her.

"Wow this kid looks exactly like Lorna. She's gonna have you wrapped around her little finger, Nichols"

"Yeah, I know. I'm so fucking screwed" Nicky said with a smile as she stared down at her new little girl in complete adoration.

* * *

After Alex and Piper left, Lorna fell asleep immediately. Nicky was glad she was finally comfortable enough to get some rest, so she decided not to wake her no matter what. If Sophie were to wake up, Nicky would deal with it on her own because she knew how much Lorna needed to sleep right now. This was the first time that Nicky was really completely alone with Sophie and, surprisingly, it didn't make her nervous at all. She pulled the blanket up on Lorna to make sure she was warm enough and gave her a kiss goodnight. Then, she put Sophie down in her little hospital crib, gave her a tiny kiss on her head, and whispered, "I love you so much."


	13. Chapter 13

The first week that Nicky and Lorna had Sophie home was probably the hardest week of either of their lives. Sophie was never just awake and content. She was always either crying or sleeping, and there was way more crying than there was sleeping. She could never sleep for more than 2 hours at a time.

The only thing that really seemed to make Sophie happy was eating. She was a great eater. The second she started eating, she was always so happy. And she would keep eating for a while.  
"That's another thing she gets from you, babe. You both continuously shock me with how much you can eat. I mean, really, for two very tiny people, you eat like crazy." Nicky had stated. Nicky loved picking out all of the similarities there were between the two of them. She loved it that her little girl was so much like Lorna.

It definitely got easier as they learned what they were doing. For example, instead of both of them being up every 2 hours with her in the middle of the night, they learned to trade off. That way, they each only had to get up every other time Sophie was awake so that it allowed for a whopping 4 hours of sleep in the middle. I mean, sure, it still wasn't ideal, but little by little it was getting easier.

Sophie was really fucking cute too, which definitely helped because Nicky and Lorna constantly felt rewarded for their lack of sleep. No matter how hard this baby stage was, it was definitely worth it every time Sophie would look up at either one of them with her cute little eyes.

Once it had been six weeks, Nicky and Lorna felt like pros. They had such a system down. Every night they would bathe her and read her a story before putting her to bed. Lorna would make animal noises for the animals in the books despite the fact that Nicky mocked her every time she did it.

* * *

Every so often one of them would watch Sophie alone for an hour or two to give the other time to go to the gym, or shower, or go out to lunch, or do pretty much whatever else they wanted to do for two hours so that they could feel normal again. This particular day, however, Nicky really wanted to go with Alex to Red's restaurant. She said she was craving some weird Russian food that Lorna swore Nicky didn't even eat. Lorna wanted to go to the gym.  
"Come on, Nick, I'm really getting close to losing the pregnancy weight. I just wanna go work out really quick."  
"Baby, first of all you look amazing. You don't need to lose any weight, so that's not even a valid excuse. Second, I already told Vause I would go with her!"

This went on for a while until Lorna decided to get Sophie involved in an effort to manipulate Nicky. She knew how easily Sophie could turn Nicky into a softy.

"Soph, I know you want you're your mommy Nicky to give you your bottle now, right? You love Nicky so much so you probably want her to stay with you."  
All of a sudden Sophie, who had already been looking up at Nicky, started smiling for the first time.

"Holy shit is she smiling?" Nicky was so excited she had the biggest smile on her face.

"She is! She's smiling! Aw, Nick, I can't believe it she's so cute!"

"She's smiling at me." Nicky said with such pride.

"Yeah, she's saying 'Nicky please stay with me. I love you so much I just want to be with you all day'."

"Don't do that. That's not fair." Nicky said knowing exactly what Lorna was trying to do to her. But when she looked down at Sophie again and she was still smiling at her, she had to give in. She let out a big sigh.

"Alright, Soph, I'll stay with you. You're killing me you know that. This smiling thing is gonna get old really fast if you keep using it to manipulate me."

Lorna laughed and gave Nicky and Sophie kisses before she left.

* * *

Lorna came home from the gym to find Nicky sleeping on the couch with Sophie lying asleep on her stomach. It was such a cute moment that Lorna had to take a picture, she just couldn't help herself. She forgot to turn the flash off though, and the picture woke Nicky up. Nicky hated being the object of a picture that made her look like such a softy, so she automatically groaned when she realized what happened. Unfortunately, the picture came out blurry.

"Please, Nick, can I just get one more! This is so cute!"

Lorna went to take another picture, but instead of the cute, innocent picture she was hoping for, she got a picture of Nicky and Sophie lying on the couch together with Nicky flipping her off. Ehh good enough, she figured.

* * *

Lorna loved singing songs to Sophie, mostly because it made Sophie smile every time. She would sing to her in the morning when she woke up and at night when she was starting to get fussy. She even started singing her songs when she went to change her diaper. Lorna had tried to convince Nicky to sing to Sophie too, but Nicky flat out refused.

"No. This is where I draw the line. I don't even sing in the shower I'm not gonna sing to an 8 week old baby."

"But, Nick, it'll get her to smile! You love it when she smiles"  
"Yeah but I see her smile a lot as it is. I'm not singing to her it's not happening."

Lorna dropped the subject seeing that Nicky was clearly not going to budge on the issue.

A couple of days later Nicky went into Sophie's room to change her diaper and Sophie looked up at her expectantly. "Listen, I know mommy sings to you while she changes your diaper, but that's just really not my style, kid." Sophie looks up at her with wide eyes as she's talking. 'Fuck she looks exactly like Lorna' Nicky thinks. "Okay, let's get another thing straight while were at it. Just because you look up at me with those cute, little eyes doesn't mean you're gonna get your way. I already have enough of that with your mommy. You both think you can win me over just by looking at me, but that's all gonna end now, okay. I'm putting my foot down." Sophie keeps looking up at her and starts to smile. "Damn it, kid, don't start smiling. That's not fair. That's just playing dirty." But Sophie just keeps smiling and looking up her. Nicky sighs. "Okay, kid, you win. What's the one you like again? Oh yeah. Head shoulders knees and toes" Nicky starts singing and she touches each body part on Sophie as she sings it. Sophie loves it and by the song Nicky could not stop grinning at her baby. "You know between you and your mommy I'm slowly turning a pushover. Word can't spread that I sang to you, okay? This is gonna be our little secret. Promise not to tell?" Nicky tangles their pinkies together as she says "Pinky promise. That shit's binding".

Lorna was standing in the doorway, smiling, having seen the whole thing. When Nicky turned around she was so startled and embarrassed to see Lorna there.

"Not a word" Nicky warned her as she walked out of the room


	14. Chapter 14

Nicky, Lorna, and Sophie were over at Red's house for dinner. They always loved going to Red's house for many reasons. They loved Red and they loved seeing Red and Sophie start to bond. They loved Red's cooking. Most of all, however, they loved how easy everything was for them while they were there. Red was nostalgic for the feeling of having babies around since all of her children were fully-grown. So whenever Sophie came over, she would take advantage of finally having a baby in the house again and do everything she could for Sophie. Nicky and Lorna would just sit back and relax while Red handled everything. She would feed her, burp her, change her diaper, and even help rock her to sleep for naps.

They were sitting in Red's living room as Red was feeding Sophie her bottle.

"Ma, I gotta say I am loving this. I haven't been able to just sit for an hour straight like this in weeks."

"Yeah, Red, thank you so much for all of this. You're amazing with her."  
"Oh don't worry about it. She's my granddaughter of course I want to take care of her. I'm just flattered that you trust me so much. By the way, this reminds me, I wanted to run an idea by you. I know your anniversary is next Saturday. 3 years, that's exciting. Especially for this one" Red says as she motions over to Nicky. "If it weren't for you, Lorna, I'm pretty sure she'd be a walking STD at this point" Red said making Lorna laugh and Nicky roll her eyes.

"Thanks mommy" Nicky said sarcastically

"But anyway. 3 years is a big deal and you two haven't had a night to yourselves where you didn't have to deal with a crying baby every few hours in 4 months now! So I had an idea. And feel free to say no if you're not comfortable with it. But, since you seem to really trust me with her and since I've spent a great deal of time with her already, I would feel comfortable staying with her overnight. I booked you guys a room in a nearby hotel as an anniversary present. I could come and stay with Sophie and give you guys some time to yourselves"

Nicky and Lorna looked at each other both pondering the proposal. Of course it sounded intriguing. I mean a night with just the two of them would be great. It would finally be a night when they could get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time. A night when they could have sex for as long as they wanted to instead of speeding it up because they knew Sophie would be waking up soon. And they did really trust Red. She was so good with Sophie. I mean, she could always get her to stop crying within seconds of holding her.

"Yeah that sounds amazing, Red. Thank you so much!"

* * *

The night of their anniversary arrived. Nicky and Lorna were exhausted out of their minds because the previous night had been such a terrible one for Sophie.

It was the 4th of July and Nicky and Lorna were doing their best to comfort a hysterical Sophie. There were tons of fireworks going off everywhere around them. The fireworks kept waking Sophie up and scaring her half to death. For hours on end, they served as pure torture for the adorable 4-month-old. The minute Sophie would hear the fireworks, her eyes would open so wide that it looked like they were going to pop out of her head. Then, she would proceed to cry hysterically for a long, long while before finally calming down. For hours on end, the same pattern kept repeating itself. Fireworks would go off, Sophie would cry, Lorna and Nicky would spend the next 30 minutes try to calm her down, they would hold her until she stopped crying, and finally put her back to sleep. Then, about 5 minutes later, more fireworks would go off.

So, needless to say, Nicky and Lorna had gotten practically zero hours of sleep. They were exhausted out of their minds, but still very much looking forward to their evening away. They were packing when Red showed up. They gave her the monitor to watch Sophie sleep, they showed her where Sophie's books were to read her before bed, they thanked her about a million times, and they were off.

* * *

First, Nicky and Lorna went out for an anniversary dinner.

"3 years, kid. That's a long time." Nicky said as they finished up their meal.

"Yeah, it is. I can't even believe it sometimes."  
"Ya know, maybe it's been a little too long. Would it make me an asshole if I took this time to say adios. Ya know pack all my shit and just leave. You and Sophie can fend for yourselves, right? You don't like really need me? I'm free to go be on my own again? Live my own life?" Nicky joked.

"Yeah, you try to leave us and I'll send Red to poison your food."

Nicky started to laugh.  
"Well I guess I better stay put then, huh?"

"Yeah, you're stuck with us forever"

Nicky reached for Lorna's hand across the table.

"Sounds perfect." she said as her face broke into a smile

The couple sat there smiling at each other for a moment until a waiter dropped a plate in the distance and pulled them back into reality.

"OH I almost forgot!" Lorna squealed. "Here ya go, Nichols." Lorna excitedly handed her a perfectly wrapped present, bow and all.

"Oh right, presents." Nicky said feeling like an idiot that they had forgotten to exchange presents all through dinner.

So Nicky and Lorna both unwrapped their anniversary gifts.

Nicky had bought a very beautiful necklace for Lorna. It was very girly, very Lorna. "Aw it's so beautiful, Nick. Thank you!"

As Nicky unwrapped her gift, she couldn't believe it. It was a $7000 watch that she had seen in a watch store one time last year and fallen in love with. "Yeah, right. Maybe I'll pay that much for a watch when I win the lottery" she had joked. Little did she know that, in that moment, Lorna took full note of the exact watch she had been enamored with.

Nicky couldn't even talk. She just stared at the watch trying to decide if it was the same one she had seen all of those months earlier. I mean, sure it looked exactly the same, but she figured there was no way that Lorna would have done that. I mean that is a lot of money for a stupid, little anniversary gift. After a minute, Nicky finally gained the ability to produce a sentence.

"Baby, are you kidding me? If this is what I think it is, there is no way I can keep this! It's way too much! I mean it's really sweet of you. Like so fucking sweet of you, but this is ridiculous! I can't accept this."

"Nick, I've been planning this for a long time, okay? Don't worry about the money. I figured it all out."

"But how did you even? Why did you? When did you?" Nicky kept trying to ask all of the questions that came to mind, but she couldn't even put a proper sentence together.

"I wanted to do something nice for you to thank you for all that you did for me last year during the miscarriage and pregnancy. You were so good to me. You deserve something you really, really want and I know how much you loved this watch when you saw it. So I started taking extra shifts at work. I told you some people got fired so I had to work more, but really I just asked for extra hours. And all of the money that I made in those extra hours, I put aside for your watch. I've actually had this hiding in our apartment for 2 months now, I'm glad you didn't find it beforehand."

Nicky just sat there in pure amazement.

"Baby I. I don't know what to say. I can't believe this. I had no idea."

"Yeah this was the only secret I've ever been able to keep in my life." Lorna said with a smile. "So I did good?"

"You did amazing. I really can't believe this." Nicky said still in complete shock. "This was so nice of you. I mean, like, really. This is a lot of fucking money for an anniversary present, baby. You so didn't have to do that"

"I know, but I wanted to. You are so good to me always. You deserve it. "

Nicky looked at Lorna as she shook her head, still in pure disbelief.

"Get the fuck over here" Nicky said as she moved to give Lorna a very big kiss.

"Thank you so much. Really. Thank you, baby"

"It was my pleasure. See now you really won't leave us" Lorna joked

"Yeah, now I finally have some incentive to stay"

* * *

So they went to their hotel room and got completely undressed, but actually doing anything, they decided to lie down for a minute. I mean after all, they were completely exhausted from the night before and they had to gain some energy.

4 hours later, Nicky woke up to find Lorna asleep next to her. _Wait did we ever have sex?_ She thought.

She immediately shook Lorna awake.

"Get up, Lorna! Wake up!"

"What's wrong?" Lorna asked completely startled from being shaken awake.

"We never had sex!"

"What?"

"We never had sex! We fell asleep!"

Lorna started laughing. "Oh God, we're so sleep deprived! We're pathetic now! What happened to us?"

Nicky, however, wasn't laughing.

"This is not funny. Do you remember how much sex we had on our anniversary last year?"

"Nick, that was different. I was pregnant! We always had so much sex when I was pregnant, it had nothing to do with our anniversary."

"I don't care. We need to do this at least 3 times. I am not turning into an old, sexless, pathetic parent"

"Nick, calm down, okay? We'll have sex. Let me get up" Lorna said after seeing that Nicky had no sense of humor about the subject.

"3 times."

"What?"

"We have to do it at least 3 times. It's our anniversary."

"Is that like a rule or something?"

"No it's just what has to happen! We had sex 6 times last year on this very night. I'm accepting that we can only get to half of that this time because we're sleep deprived. But we need to get to half of it, okay! We need to!"

Lorna laughed seeing how seriously Nicky was taking this.

"Okay, baby, we'll do it 3 times."

So she got up and they got down to business right away seeing as they had exactly 3 rounds of sex ahead of them and they did still want to sleep more. After all, they were very sleep deprived.


	15. Chapter 15

A month had passed and Sophie started laughing. She had the cutest, little baby laugh. Trying to get Sophie to laugh had very quickly become Nicky and Lorna's favorite thing to do. She would laugh when they would make faces at her, when they would play "peek-a-boo", and even when they would tear up pieces of paper. One time Sophie even started laughing when Nicky just walked into the room.

"Oh, she must be laughing at your hair" Lorna had joked.

What had really become Lorna's favorite hobby was watching Nicky and Sophie together. They had a very special bond. Yes, Nicky was such a softy when it came to Sophie. But, Nicky was still Nicky, so it was very funny to watch her interact with a 5-month old baby. One time, Nicky was watching a baseball game on television and a bad call was made.

"That call right there, that's what we call bullshit, Soph. Can you say bullshit?" Then Nicky attempted to overly enunciate the word "bullshit" in an attempt to get Sophie to learn it.

Nicky loved how first thing in the morning, when she and Lorna would enter Sophie's room for the first time of the day, Sophie's face would immediately light up. Nicky loved how she and Lorna could immediately get Sophie to stop crying just by picking her up and hugging her. Basically, Nicky loved how much Sophie relied on her and Lorna and how happy they could make their little girl. She felt like she had a purpose, like she was really doing something right for a change.

Of course, Nicky and Lorna liked their alone time too. They loved it when Sophie would first go to bed at night and they could just cuddle up with each other and relax. They loved it when Red, Alex, or Piper would babysit for a few hours and they could go out to dinner just the two of them. But most of all, they loved their little family as whole. They loved it when all three of them were together, no matter how difficult Sophie was being.

They had a great life together. Everything was beyond perfect. They were all so happy.

* * *

Today, Lorna had to work, so Nicky and Sophie had the day to themselves. Nicky decided it would be a good idea to go to Red's. Red had been begging Nicky to stop by with Sophie. It had been about a month since she'd seen her little granddaughter and she was definitely not happy about it. So, Nicky decided to be a good daughter and take a little road trip to Red's.

"C'mon, Soph. Let's get you into your car seat so we can go see grandma. She's really missed you, so try be extra cute today, okay? Maybe we can even tear up some paper there. I know how much you love that and grandma will love seeing how happy that makes you." Nicky said as she carefully strapped Sophie into her car seat.

As they walked through Red's door, Red came running.

"Sophie!" she shrieked excitedly

"Oh, hey ma. Nice to see you too. You know, I'm beginning to think you're using me just to get to my kid. It's never like, 'oh, Nicky, why don't you come over.' It's just, 'Nicky can you bring Sophie over for the day. I miss her'." Nicky starts to sarcastically rant. "How come you didn't miss me, huh? You haven't seen me for a month either, but no. It's all about Sophie. I'm hurt, Red, really, really hurt. I always thought I was your favorite person and-".

"Are you almost done blabbering? It's been a month, Nicky, just hand her to me already!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it." Nicky laughs as she takes Sophie out of her stroller and hands her to Red.

"Oh, my girl, I missed you so much" Red gushes as she takes Sophie. 

The three of them were having a really fun day together. Red and Nicky took turns tearing up pieces of computer paper. Red couldn't help but smile about the fact that every single tear of paper caused Sophie to laugh. All 25 times that they did it, it continued to be hilarious to the 5-month-old. 

Sophie was fast asleep as Nicky was packing everything up to go home. Red looked at Nicky packing up baby bottles and pacifiers and carefully placing a sleeping baby into a stroller. Red started to laugh.

"What?" Nicky asked when she looked up at Red

"It's nothing it's just still so funny to me seeing you with a baby."  
"Yeah I know. Who would've ever though, right?"  
"You know it used to amaze me to see the look on your face when Lorna would come into the room. It was just such a foreign look for you to have, something I thought I'd never see from you. But, now, there's nothing more amazing to me than watching the way you handle Sophie. You're a natural- you're amazing. You just love her so much."

"You really think I'm doing a good job?"

"I think you're doing a great job."

"Thanks mommy" Nicky said with a huge smile.

* * *

As they were driving home, Nicky was so happy about what Red had said. _I am doing a good job. Lorna and I are doing great. This kid is gonna actually turn out okay and not be screwed up like the rest of us._ All of a sudden she saw a car spinning towards them. She quickly realized it was a car that had blown a tired and was spinning completely out of control. She desperately tried to maneuver her car as far away as possible, but it was too late. The last thing she remembered was feeling a big crash and hearing Sophie cry.

As her eyes opened, all she could tell was that there were paramedics and cops who were rushing over. She couldn't see anything. Everything was very hazy- she wasn't even sure what was happening. Then it dawned on her: _where the fuck is Sophie and why don't I hear her crying right now?_


	16. Chapter 16

_Where the fuck is Sophie and why don't I hear her crying right now?_

All of a sudden, someone helps Nicky into an ambulance.

"Where's my kid?"

"I think another paramedic got her"

"You think?! We need to find her!"

"Ma'am you need to sit down, we have to give you an examination. We'll have someone find your baby"

* * *

The next thing Nicky knows she's waking up in a hospital room with Lorna hovering over her.

"Lorna?"

"Yeah, baby, I'm here. Everything's okay" Lorna says with tears in her eyes. She gave Nicky the tightest hug imaginable and said, "You are never allowed to scare me like that again, do you hear me?"

"I'm okay, Lorna, it's okay." she says trying to comfort her wife, when she suddenly remembered exactly what had happened. She quickly broke the hug.

"Where's Sophie?!" she immediately asked- the panic in her voice was apparent.

"She's okay, Nick."

"Where is she?"

"She's in surgery"

"WHAT!? How is that okay!? How can they do surgery on her!? How can they even give anesthesia to someone so fucking small!? She's too little for surgery!"

"Nicky, calm down, it's okay. She's gonna be fine."

Nicky covers her eyes and starts crying.

"Baby, hey, come on" Lorna says sympathetically as she rubs Nick's leg.

"What kind of surgery is it?"

"Leg surgery"

"Leg surgery?"

"Yeah her leg was broken really badly. They had to fix it surgically. They said she's gonna be fine though, baby. I already asked them tons of questions."

"Damn it!" Nicky yells "How could I let this happen to her."

"Nick, a car came spiraling into you. There was nothing you could do."

"I was driving. Now my baby is in surgery. She fucking 5 months old! How the fuck is she in surgery!?" Nicky yells through her tears as she angrily kicks the bed.

"Shhhh, Nicky, it's okay." Lorna leans in and gives her a hug.

Suddenly, they hear a doctor walk into the room.

"Is our baby out of surgery?"

"Yes, she's just coming out of the anesthesia now. She's doing just fine."

They both let out huge sighs of relief, finally letting themselves calm down a bit.

* * *

As the doctors come in with Sophie, Nicky's heart immediately sinks. There is her little girl, with a big cast over her leg and stitches on the side of her stomach.

"Oh my God." Nicky starts shaking her head as she closes her eyes and bring her hands up to her head.

"Look at her! She's not okay. She was a perfect, healthy baby this morning! What did I do!? I can't believe I let this happen! I should've been driving more carefully. I should've pulled to the side faster. I shouldn't have left Red's so late!" Nicky scolds herself. She walks over and looks into Sophie's crib. "I promise you kid, next time I'll do better. Next time I'll make sure nothing happens. I will never let anything hurt you again." Nicky's voice breaks as tears start to pour out.

Lorna walks over and starts rubbing Nicky's back.

"You can't protect her from every single thing in the world, Nick. Life doesn't work that way. All you can do is hope for the best and be the best parent you can possibly be and you already do that."

"So then what the fuck can I do differently next time? What can I do so that this doesn't happen again? Whatever it is just tell me and I'll do it I promise." Nicky says through stream of hysterical tears.

"Nicky please calm down. Look at her. She's fine. Yes, she's a bit scratched up and she's probably gonna be screaming bloody murder for the next few days, but she's fine. She is alive and breathing. You need to calm down okay. Take some deep breaths or something." Lorna leads Nicky to sit down on the bed.

Nicky nods and wipes her tears as she takes a seat. She looks over at Lorna very impressed.

"Wow you are amazing in a crisis"

"No I'm really not. I was a mess a couple of hours ago. I got a call saying that I better come to the hospital because my wife and daughter just got taken in by an ambulance. That's my worst nightmare come true. Nick, I was a mess all the way over here." Lorna starts to tear up. "I was an uncontrollable mess and I ran into the hospital immediately asking every single person if they knew where either of you were. But now it's hours later, and you're both right in front of me and fine. You dislocated your shoulder and Sophie has a broken leg, but that's the extent of it. Do you have any idea how happy that makes me? I mean compared to what could have happened. Nicky, I'm too relieved that you're both still alive to be upset about anything right now."

"Shit, I can't even imagine getting a call like that. I don't think I could handle it. I'm sorry, babe. I really am. " Nicky says as she reaches for Lorna's hand.

"Hey, it okay. I'm just glad you guys are alright."

"So you had to wait all alone when you were so upset? Why didn't you have Franny come with you or something?"

"Nick, I didn't even think of calling Franny. I just went to the hospital as fast as I could."

"I just hate that you were all alone during this."

Lorna let's out a little laugh. "Nick, you could have died today and you're concerned about me having to sit alone for awhile?"

"Well I mean I wasn't even aware of what was happening for most of it. Tonight was probably harder on you than it was on me."

"Yeah well I'm okay, Nick. Focus on yourself. How's your shoulder? Can I get you anything?."

"Nah, it's fine it doesn't hurt too much."

Lorna leans in and gives Nicky kiss on the cheek. "Good. Now, don't you ever scare me like that again, okay? I can't lose you- I wouldn't be able to handle it." Lorna says very seriously.

"No, you won't have to, baby, I promise. I'm not going anywhere."

Nicky tries to lean in to give Lorna a kiss, but is stopped by the aching feeling of her dislocated shoulder. "Oww" Nicky winces.

"Here, I got it" Lorna laughs as she leans down to give Nicky another kiss.

The couple's kiss is suddently interrupted by a faint laughing sound of Sophie babbling. They both immediately rush over to see how she is.

"How are you, Soph? Does your leg hurt? I am so, so sorry about that. But I promise I'll stay right here with you until it feels all better, okay?" Nicky says as Sophie looks up at her with big eyes and starts to smile.

"See you're still her hero, Nick. She's a happy baby smiling away like always."

"She's happy" Nicky says breathing a sigh of relief.

Then, Lorna got an idea that would really prove to Nicky that Sophie was fine. She takes a paper towel out of the bathroom and starts ripping it up in front of the crib. Of course, like always, Sophie laughs at the paper being ripped up, and Nicky and Lorna start smiling away like idiots.

"Yeah she's gonna be fine" Lorna says as she looks over at Nicky.

"She's gonna be fine" Nicky agrees and hugs Lorna. "Holy shit I've never been so scared in my life"

"Me neither, Nick. I guess that means we're real parents now, huh?"

"Yeah" Nicky laughs. "It's scary as shit"

"Yes it is"


	17. Chapter 17

"So I should keep both of them on regular medication schedules?" Lorna asked the doctor as he was signing their papers to leave.

"Well yes, to a certain extent. The baby can really only have Tylenol and shouldn't take it more than twice a day, but your wife should be able to take medication whenever she's feeling discomfort."

"Okay. And when should everything start to heal?"

"Pretty soon. In a couple of weeks everything should be back to normal"

"Okay, so if in a couple of weeks, Nicky's shoulder is still hurting or it seems like Sophie is in pain, should I call you? Should I bring them back to the hospital? Or should I-"

"Lorna it's okay, babe. We're all good! My shoulder barely even hurts!" Nicky quickly interrupted her wife before she annoyed the shit out of their doctor with all of her questions.

The doctor gave Lorna a big smile and said, "it seems like they're both in great hands with you taking care of them! Absolutely, if you have any questions, feel free to give me a call, but I bet everyone will feel better in no time."

"Alright, come on, Lorna. Let's just go home" Nicky was itching to get back home where things would feel normal.

* * *

"Man, it feels so fucking good to be home again!" Nicky said as they entered their apartment. She immediately plopped down on the couch and motioned for Lorna to join her.

"C'mon, both of you come lie down with me"

"She's sleeping, Nick, I should put her in her crib so she doesn't wake up"

"Aw, come on! Just for a minute. If she wakes up I'll go put her in her crib myself"

So Lorna carefully placed Sophie down onto Nicky's stomach and then curled herself up as close to Nicky as possible. Nicky wrapped her good arm around Lorna who immediately rested her head on Nicky's chest. Everything was so calm and quiet. This was exactly what they needed. After a few minutes, Nicky was finally relaxed and happy again. She finally felt like things were returning to normal. There was nothing she'd rather do than cuddle with both of her girls. She placed a kiss on the top of Lorna's head. Just as Lorna was about to reach her head up to give Nicky a proper kiss, Sophie started wailing.

"See I told you she'd wake up"

"Ughhh I just wanted everyone to be together at home again!" Nicky groaned as she sat up. "C'mon, Soph, let's go put you to bed."

"I can do it, Nick. You rest your shoulder" Lorna took Sophie from Nicky's lap and brought her to her room.

Nicky sadly watched her two favorite people walk out of the room. _Why can't I help?_ She wondered.

* * *

Several hours later, Nicky and Lorna were eating pizza when their meal was interrupted by the sound of Sophie awakening. Nicky stood up to get her, but Lorna stopped her.

"It's okay, babe. I told you. I can take care of things for a little while. You just focus on getting better!"

A few minutes later, Lorna returned to the kitchen holding Sophie in her arms.

"I could've done that." Nicky said quietly.

"I know, babe, but you shouldn't have to. I want you to just rest for a couple of days. I can handle it."

Of course it made sense to Nicky that Lorna would want her to relax, but she couldn't help the shitty feeling in her gut that told her that she had fucked up. Her baby was hurt and now Lorna didn't trust her anymore.

"Lorna I won't let her get hurt again. I promise. I really, really promise. Please can I just help?"

Lorna immediately felt awful once she realized that Nicky was upset.

"Baby, of course I know you won't let anything happen to her. I have all the confidence in the world in your ability to handle Sophie. I'm really sorry if you thought I didn't trust you. I didn't even realize you wanted to help! I thought I was being nice giving you a break for a few days. Honestly, I'm sorry, Nicky."

"You do trust me?" Nicky asked hesitantly, not quite sure if she wanted to hear the real answer. "You're not like worried about me getting her hurt again?"

"Nicky, there's no one I trust more in the world than you. You are an incredible mother to her. Seriously, I want you to stop thinking that right now. Here, take Sophie. Do you wanna feed her? I was gonna let you finish your dinner in peace, but if you'd rather feed Sophie now, then please go ahead!"

Once Nicky fully realized that Lorna didn't at all think she was incapable of dealing with their daughter, she decided to actually milk the injury a bit. If Lorna was going to let her off the hook from baby duties for a few days, she might as well let her.

"Well I don't know if I really wanna do that." Nicky stated laughing. "This pizza tastes really fucking good and I was just in car accident, ya know. Maybe you were right. Maybe I should just take it easy for the rest of the night."  
Lorna rolled her eyes. "Nicky, I'm gonna strangle you one of these days."

"Yeah, I love you too! Don't forget her pacifier for after!"

* * *

It turned out that the doctor was right and a couple of weeks later everything was back to normal. Sophie's cast came off and she was back to her normal sleeping schedule. Nicky's shoulder had healed and so had her confidence. She was back to fully believing in her ability to be a good mother. And Lorna was glad that she could finally stop worrying about the two of them. They were all moving forward from the accident together as a family.


	18. Chapter 18

Over time, Sophie had grown accustomed to grabbing onto anything she could. Whenever Nicky held her, Sophie tugged away at her hair.

"You're gonna make me go bald, kid." She joked, to which Lorna replied with

"There's no way you're ever going bald. She could pull out half of your hair and you'd still have more than the rest of us."  
Whenever Lorna would hold her, Sophie would grab onto her boobs and Lorna could not figure out why.

"She's thinking she's been ripped off! She's saying 'oh I remember when I used to be able to eat from those things. Now, I'm never allowed to see them anymore'. Ya know, I have sympathy for the kid. You have really nice tits, she's probably just missing them."  
"Yeah alright, Nicky" Lorna said in an effort to shrug off her wife's comments and change the subject.  
"What? I'm giving you a compliment! I know if I were suddenly cut off from your tits, I'd be upset too! I'd probably have the sense to not just grab onto them whenever I pleased, but you can't compare my restraint to Sophie's. I've had much more life experience. I'm more mature."

"Yeah I don't know if I'd go that far, Nick. I'd say you're about equally as mature as Sophie. In fact, you burp more than Sophie does, so you may actually be the more immature one." Lorna said with a smirk on her face.

"Oh, you think that's funny, huh? You think you're being really funny right now?" Nicky walked toward Lorna with a wicked grin on her face. Lorna knew exactly where this was going so she started backing away slowly with her hands up in defeat, but before she could stop iher Nicky started tickling her all over." Lorna was rolling from side to side, giggling uncontrollably.  
"Nichols, stop! Nichols, you win okay? You're very mature" Lorna managed to get out through her fit of giggles. Nicky stopped and gave Lorna a quick peck, "there we go, that's all I wanted to hear. Now was that so hard?"

"You're annoying, you know that?" Lorna asked with a big smile on her face as she leaned her head on Nicky's shoulder

"Yeah you seem really annoyed right now" Nicky's voice dripped with sarcasm as she lifted Lorna's face up to kiss her.

* * *

The months were passing by very quickly. Nicky and Lorna couldn't even believe how fast Sophie was growing up. When Sophie started crawling, it gave them a particularly strange feeling. It was like she was a real person now. She could crawl wherever she wanted to go, well to an extent. It's not like she could handle steps, but she no longer relied on Nicky and Lorna to carry her everywhere. Her new capabilities gave Nicky and Lorna such a rush of excitement. _This is the fun part- she's turning into a real person. Pretty soon she'll be walking and talking. We'll teach her to ride a bike and go swimming!_ They thought. However, Sophie's crawling also came with new worries for Nicky and Lorna.

"She's gonna crawl into something dangerous and get hurt, Nick, I can feel it. Something bad's gonna happen."

"Baby, we're with her every second she's awake. If she was heading towards something dangerous, we'd be right there to stop her before she got any farther."

Still, Lorna insisted on baby proofing the hell out of their apartment. She would not stop until she had successfully moved every drawer around in their apartment. She wouldn't stop until anything that could possibly be dangerous was out of reach. She wouldn't so much as keep pencils in any drawer besides the very top one.

"Baby, even if she somehow managed to reach up to the height of the middle drawer, pull on the handle, and open up the drawer, which by the way is not going to happen for awhile, then she'd first have to search through the drawer for a pencil to get into trouble with. That's not gonna happen, okay? There are too many far-fetched variables in that scenario for it to be cause for actual concern. You don't have to drive yourself crazy with this."

Lorna definitely saw the logic in what Nicky was saying, yet she couldn't bring herself to listen. She spent the entire day rearranging every single drawer in the apartment to assure herself of Sophie's safety and, despite Nicky's insistence that this was unnecessary, Nicky spent the day helping her.

"Hey, if you're gonna do it anyway, you may as well have some help" she had said. Nicky liked to seem composed. She liked to seem like nothing could worry her, like she was far too sensible to worry, but in reality, she was just as neurotic about their child's safety as Lorna was. Lorna, very aware of this fact, gave Nicky a big smile and simply said "Okay, Nick. Whatever you say." She gave her loving, protective wife a kiss and they began baby proofing.

Their little girl was growing up and Nicky and Lorna were learning how to deal with each new milestone the best that they possibly could.


	19. Chapter 19

It had been weeks of Nicky and Lorna being trapped in the house. Of course, they loved being around Sophie all the time, but they were starting to lose their minds being cooped up in such a little apartment for so long.

"We're going out this weekend, Nick. It's happening. It needs to happen!"

So they called Alex and Piper, they called Franny, and they called Red. But all of their usual babysitters had other plans. They all had exciting lives, ones that weren't weighed down by babies. They couldn't just be available to babysit Sophie whenever Nicky and Lorna felt the need to get out.

* * *

The next day at work, Nicky was talking about their problem to her friend Jess.

"Hey, we can totally watch Sophie for you if you want? Jake;s only a year older, so they might like each other! It could be fun."

"Really? You would do that?"

"Of course!"

* * *

So Friday when Nicky walked into work she expected to see Jess and go over plans for the night. Jess, however, was nowhere to be found. Nicky decided to text her.

 **N: are you sick or something?**

 **J: No, I just couldn't come into work today.**

 **N: Oh okay. Well if you want to postpone babysitting, it's no problem. We can do it another time.**

 **J: No, no don't be silly! You can bring her over. No big deal.**

So Nicky just assumed that Jess was playing hooky for the day and shrugged it off.

* * *

That night, Nicky and Lorna walked into Jess's house to find a complete train wreck in front of them. There were clothes everywhere and tons of broken furniture. Jess was a hysterical mess. Lorna could sense that Jess really had to talk to Nicky so she quickly took the kids into the other room and started entertaining them.

"What happened?! You're scaring me." Nicky asked once the kids were out of the room

"The bastard cheated on me." Jess cried.

"Your husband!?" Nicky asked in complete shock

"Yes, my husband. Who the fuck else would cheat on me!"

"Okay, I'm sorry. I guess that should've been obvious. It's just shocking. I mean you guys have been married for forever! And the two of you together are, well, sickening to be with actually."

"I know I don't get it!" She cried as a new stream of tears poured down her cheeks.

"Hey, its okay, Jess. It'll be okay. You don't need him." Nicky said giving her a hug.

"I do need him! I can't handle Jake all by myself. It's too much work! I don't even make enough money to pay for the house and all of the kid's stuff at once! I don't know what to do!" She was completely hysterical.

Nicky tried everything she could to calm Jess down. After about 10 minutes of Nicky whispering, "fuck this guy! You don't need him! I'm telling you- you're gonna be fine without him", Jess suddenly remembered why Nicky had come over.

"Oh my God, Nick, I am so sorry! Go out to dinner. I can watch the kids. I completely forgot I'm sorry!"

Nicky could tell that Jess was nowhere near okay and really needed some company tonight.

"No, don't worry about it! Lorna and I can go out anytime, okay? I wanna help you. You don't deserve this."

So Nicky spent the next few hours helping Jess calm down and cleaning up the huge mess in her house. Lorna fed both kids and kept them busy while listening very closely to all that Jess was saying through the door. She felt so bad for her. This was a woman who had been in such a seemingly happy marriage. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, everything was ruined.

* * *

Nicky and Lorna walked home pushing Sophie's stroller in complete silence. Neither of them could say anything. Their hearts ached from what they had just witnessed. Jess was a total mess and nothing they could say would change the fact that her family was completely broken. They couldn't even imagine what that felt like.

As Lorna and Nicky climbed into bed, Nicky felt like she had to say something. They couldn't just go to bed in silence.

"I'm sorry we never got to go out tonight."

"Hey, don't worry about it, Nick. I wouldn't have felt right leaving her with 2 kids and no real company tonight either. You're a good friend."

Despite the fact that it was no longer silent, Nicky still felt like she couldn't go to bed like this. She felt sick to her stomach and knew that she had to address the subject to feel better.

"Hey, Lorna?" she said quietly

"Yeah?"

"I want you to know that I am never gonna cheat on you. Never. Nothing could ever happen that would make me cheat on you." Nicky said with such sincerity in her voice. "I just need you to know that."

"I do know that, Nick." Lorna said with a smile as she tucked herself into Nicky's side. She rubbed comfort lines up and down Nicky's arm. "I know that, baby."

They held each other until their spirits had risen enough to fall asleep.

Right as Lorna was falling asleep she whispered. "I would never cheat on you either."

Nicky smiled and gave Lorna one final kiss before trying to fall asleep.

She still couldn't sleep, though. She just lay awake thinking about her poor friend and the fucking bastard who broke up their family. _Who the fuck could ever do that to the person they love?_ She looked over at Lorna who was sleeping with such a cute look on her face and knew that nothing in the world could make her betray that woman. _That guy's a fucking asshole_.

* * *

 _Sorry for adding such a random chapter! I just had to write this for cathartic purposes. I hope you like it anyway despite the randomness :) You guys are the best!_


	20. Chapter 20

It had been an incredible past couple of months. Sophie recently started to attempt walking. For the most part, she was really a dare devil about it and would just go for it without hesitating, but sometimes she would reach out for a hand to hold when she got scared. She was also starting to talk. I mean, she wasn't saying a lot, but she was saying a few words. Her first word had been "food" and she said it when she saw Lorna starting to eat an orange one afternoon. Of course it immediately caused both of her mothers to laugh.

"Of course our daughter's first word is "food". She definitely takes after you" Nicky laughed.

When Lorna finally stopped laughing she looked down at her daughter and said, "When you get a little older you can have an orange, Soph. I know you love them."

By now, she was even saying a bunch of different words. She could say "mama", "hi", "bye", "no", "more", "hat", "pate" for plate, and "gamma" for grandma whenever she'd see Red. She even started to making "mooing" sounds whenever she'd see an animal because she had a cow toy that would moo constantly, giving both Nicky and Lorna major headaches. The toy always calmed her down in a second though, so there was no way they could get rid of it. In fact, they even bought her more animal toys that made sounds just because Sophie liked the first one so much.

"Man, the sacrifices we make for our kids" Nicky had said one day when there was an insane amount of barking, chirping, mooing, and oinking happening in their apartment. Lorna and Nicky were both sitting there being tortured with constant sounds for hours. They were both certain they'd never have peace and quiet again.

* * *

A few days had passed since the animal sound incident and, much to both Nicky and Lorna's amazement, Sophie was turning 1 next week. Lorna wanted to throw a huge party. Nicky had said it was stupid to spend so much money when Sophie didn't even understand what a birthday was, but of course Nicky lost the argument when Lorna looked up at her with puppy eyes and got Sophie to join in as well.

The 3 of them were currently in a party store getting everything they would need for the big day.

"Soph, which plates do you like better? Pink, blue, purple or yellow?" Lorna asked her almost 1 year old daughter as she held up different colored paper plates.

"I think she likes the ones with the bats on them for Halloween. In fact, I think she really likes all of the bat things, especially these cool socks." Nicky said holding up a creepy pair of socks covered in bat pictures. "We should make it bat themed and get everyone these socks for party favors."

"No. We're not having creepy bat decorations at our daughter's first birthday party.

"Yeah okay" Nicky gave in quickly knowing she had no chance of winning that argument. "I didn't really have much hope for that one."

* * *

30 minutes later, they had a cart filled to the max with pink decorations.

"The things I put up with because I love you guys so much is insane" Nicky shook her head as Lorna added another pack of pink balloons to the pile.

Lorna just laughed and rubbed Nicky's shoulder. "Fine, you can get the bat socks if you really want to wear them that day"

"Okay!" Nicky immediately perked up and ran to get the socks she wanted. Maybe she would have fun at this party after all.


	21. Chapter 21

**This chapter starts after a bit of a time jump. It's now 3 years into the future and Sophie is 4. I hope everyone is okay with this, but I just started to want to write chapters with a bit of an older kid. I really hope you all are still enjoying this! And if anyone has a specific idea they'd like me to incorporate let me know!**

* * *

"What if she doesn't like it, Nick? What if she just cries the whole time? Oh, this was such a bad idea!"

"Baby, it's gonna be fine. Every kid goes to preschool eventually- she would fall behind if we kept her from going to preschool. This will be good for her. Even if she doesn't like it at first, she'll get used to it. I promise."

So Lorna went to Sophie's room to get her ready for her first day of preschool.

"Okay, Soph, you ready to get dressed and have breakfast?" Lorna called out as she headed to Sophie's room. When she reached her room, Lorna immediately laughed at the sight in front of her. Sophie had her head stuck in one of the sleeves of her shirt. Clearly, she had tried to dress herself.

"Here, Soph, let me help" she said as she took the shirt off of her daughter and put it on her correctly.

"I can see again!" Sophie exclaimed once her eyes were no longer covered by the shirt.

Lorna laughed. "Why did you put that on by yourself, Soph? You know we always help you."

"But I'm a big girl today! Today is school!"

"Yes, you're very big now. But in order to go to school, you need to be able to see. So let us help you get dressed next time, okay?

"Okay mommy!"

* * *

Nicky and Lorna walked on either side of Sophie each holding one of her hands on the way to her preschool.

"Do you think it's a fun place?" she asked curiously

"Oh yeah, kid, you're gonna have the best time!" Nicky answered.

"But are there boys?"

"Yes there will be boys in your class."

"I don't like boys. They're too loud all the time"

"Yeah I'm not really a big fan of boys myself, Soph" Nicky replied earning her a little whack on the shoulder from Lorna.

"Sophie the boys there will be nice to you. And if they bother you, you just have to ignore them. No biggie!" Lorna said

* * *

As they walked into her classroom, they were immediately greeted by her insanely bubbly teacher.

"Hi! Welcome to preschool!"

Sophie excitedly ran to the huge pile of blocks over on the carpet and started playing with the other kids that were there.

"Well that was fast" Lorna said

"Yeah see, baby. Nothing to worry about- she's so happy here!"

"She's not even gonna say goodbye to us?"

"Baby, I don't think we should make a big deal about the fact that we're leaving. It can only ruin how well she's taking this."

* * *

So Nicky and Lorna left. It seemed so quiet back at their apartment without Sophie there. They had said they were going to take advantage of having a little bit of free time. They would be able to finally be able to read. It would finally be quiet enough in their apartment for them to really think straight. However, once they had the silence, they did not like it.

"Is it weird that I miss having toys thrown everywhere?" Nicky asked/

"No, I do too. I really miss her. But she'll be back in like 3 hours and will, no doubt, start making a mess for us to clean up. All will be right again"

* * *

When they went to pick Sophie up, her teacher came running over to them, gushing about how well Sophie did.

They felt such pride hearing how great of an impression Sophie had already made on her teacher.

"She's a great kid" her teacher finally finished.

"Yeah she is." They both agreed.

Sophie came running up to them.

"Mommy I made this!" She handed Nicky a piece of paper with sloppy, unrecognizable drawings on it.

"Wow, that's great kid! I'm glad you had fun!"

"I missed you" Lorna said as she gave Sophie a big.

All of a sudden another little kid came running over and Sophie immediately broke the hug with Lorna and hugged the other little girl instead.

"Sammy's my best friend now!" she said excitedly.

"Oh well it's nice to meet you, Sammy." Nicky said trying not to laugh at the jealous look that Lorna had on her face.

* * *

Later that night, Lorna and Nicky were lying in bed.

"She didn't miss us at all, Nick. I mean I'm glad that she likes it, but wouldn't you think she'd miss us a little bit at least?"

"Baby, all of this preschool stuff is new to her right now. She's too overwhelmed by all of it to even be thinking about what we're doing during the day. It's better this way. Do you really want her sitting there upset and missing us all day."

"No, of course not. You're right I'm being ridiculous."

They were silent for awhile.

"I just miss it when she used to need us" Lorna said sadly.

"Baby she still needs us. She's only 4."

"Yeah but 4 is like almost 10 and then that's almost 18 and then she's gone"

"Okay now you are being ridiculous." Nicky laughed as she gave her wife a kiss. "You're adorable when you get this irrational you know that?"

Nicky pulled Lorna into a kiss. She was just about to start working her way down her wife's body when all of a sudden they heard Sophie running into their room, crying.

"Soph, what's the matter?" Nicky immediately jumps off of Lorna and asks worriedly.

"I had a bad dream!" she cries. "It was so scary!"

"Come here, it's okay, kid."

Sophie, who was physically shaking she was so scared, immediately tucked herself between her two mothers. Nicky and Lorna hugged her until she felt okay again. They both couldn't help but smile as they held her while she fell asleep. They finally felt needed again. Once she was asleep, Lorna carried her back into her room and tucked her into bed.

"Is it fucked up that I totally loved that, Nick?" Lorna asked feeling guilty for taking such pleasure in their child's nightmare.

"Hey, I loved that too, so at least you're not the only fucked up one" Nicky laughed. "See, baby, just when you think she doesn't need us anymore, she still acts like such a little kid."

"Yeah- luckily. I don't know what I'll do when she stops running to our room because of nightmares."

"Well, maybe we can show her a marathon of scary movies then so she'll be terrified enough to cuddle up to us" Nicky joked.

"Well at least we have a plan"


	22. Chapter 22

It was a Thursday night. Nicky and Lorna were just about to fall asleep when they heard Sophie knock on their door.

"Mommy I can't fall asleep! Can I stay in your room tonight?"

"Soph, did you even try?" Nicky asked. This was becoming a regular occurrence. This was the 4th night that week that Sophie had tried to sleep with them.

"Yes. I tried. Mommy, I really can't fall asleep."

"Why don't I tuck you in and read you another story, hon?" Lorna asked

"But we already did that and it didn't work! Please mommy!" She begged.

Nicky sighed, knowing that Lorna was going to cave any second.

"Okay, Soph. But this is the last time"

Sophie excitedly jumped into bed between Nicky and Lorna.

Of course Nicky loved sleeping next to her daughter. She loved Sophie more than she even realized she could love someone, but bedtime was the only alone time that she and Lorna really got since they both worked and took care of Sophie during the daytime. She missed having alone time with Lorna before they would fall asleep.

* * *

The next day, after Nicky and Lorna dropped Sophie off at preschool, Nicky decided they had to talk.

"Baby, we can't let Sophie sleep with us anymore. She will never try to fall asleep on her own if we keep letting her stay."

"I know it's just so hard. I feel bad saying no because I don't want her to think I don't want to spend time with her."

"And I don't want her to think that either, but baby, that's our only time alone together. I miss you"

"I know I miss you too. I'm sorry. I'll try to be more strict. I need to learn to say no to her more."

"Don't feel bad. We both know she has a hold over me too. It's just. I miss just being alone with you sometimes. Remember how much time we used to spend together, just me and you, when I first got out of Litchfield?"

Of course Lorna remembered. It had been the most special time of both of their lives. It was when they first officially agreed to be in a serious relationship. It was when they first said "I love you".

* * *

It had been a really hard 6 months with Lorna out of Litchfield. Saying goodbye to each other had been totally brutal. Lorna was crying and clinging onto Nicky for dear life. Nicky was a crying mess to, even though she was trying so hard to make Lorna think she was fine. When they pulled apart, it was completely obvious that Nicky was a wreck. She had mascara streaming down her face. Lorna had never seen her like that.  
"Nick, are you gonna be okay?" Lorna asked worried

"Yeah, kid, I'm gonna be fine. Don't worry about me" Nicky replied trying her best to be convincing. But she wasn't convincing at all and Lorna was worried.

"Nicky, please don't cry. It'll be okay. I'll come to visit as soon as I can I promise."

"I know, kid. I'm sorry" She said in a shaky voice, trying desperately to stop crying. "I'm really trying not to cry right now believe me." she said as more tears spilled out against her will.

Lorna frowned and hugged Nicky again.

"I'm gonna miss you so much, Nick."

"I'm gonna miss you too, kid. So fucking much."

They held each other tight as they heard, "Let's go inmate. Do you wanna leave today or not?"

Lorna reluctantly pulled away from Nicky as she whispered, "please go find Red or something. Don't be alone right now. I need to know that you're okay and with people."  
Nicky simply nodded, not wanting to start crying again, as Lorna left.

* * *

It was a tough 6 months apart because, on top of the time apart causing both Nicky and Lorna to feel lonely, it also brought to light the question that they had never answered. _Are we even a couple?_ Sure, the 2 of them had been back to fucking nonstop before Lorna left Litchfield, but they had never really defined anything. They both wanted to be in a relationship, but neither of them had the balls to really bring up the subject.

6 months later, when Nicky finally left Litchfield, it was Lorna who came to get her. Nicky could not contain her excitement and immediately ran over where Lorna was waiting.

"Lorna! Holy shit I missed you so much, Kid." She said as she tightly embraced her woman.

"I missed you too, Nick. I can't believe you're finally out." Lorna said as she hugged Nicky back. "I can never go 6 months without seeing you again."

"No, I can't either. We're never doing that again. I missed you way too fucking much" Nicky replied still tightly gripping onto Lorna.

Nicky eventually pulled away so that she could kiss Lorna. They had both wanted desperately to kiss each other for 6 months, so once they started they could not stop. They stood there in broad daylight fully making out for a very long time. Neither one of them had any intention of pulling away until they heard someone in the distance yell "Ew, get a room!"

They pulled apart laughing.

"Come on, let's go. I can show you my apartment."

* * *

So the two of them drove to Lorna's apartment. Nicky spend the whole ride leaning over to play with Lorna's hair and give her kisses. When she gave Lorna a kiss on the neck and whispered "Holy shit, kid, the things I'm gonna do to you when we get to your place", Lorna knew that she was becoming far too turned on to drive and immediately shook her off.

"Nichols you're distracting me we're gonna get in an accident"

Nicky smirked. "Alright, fine. I'll just keep my hands to myself for the rest of the drive." She said as she sat back in her seat.

"Well I wouldn't go that far," Lorna said as she took Nicky's hand and intertwined their fingers. They stayed like that until they reached Lorna's apartment.

* * *

Nicky had Lorna pinned up against a wall the second they got inside.

Everything was heating up so fast that Lorna didn't even realize what was happening until her shirt was being lifted off of her. Suddenly, she realized they were still standing.  
"Nick, I wanna be lying down" Lorna managed to get out in between hot kisses.

So Nicky picked Lorna up, wrapped Lorna's legs around her waist, moved her to the couch, and immediately got on top of her, kissing and biting her neck as she unhooked her bra. Everything after that was a complete blur to Lorna. She just knew that everything was feeling so amazing and that she couldn't believe this was finally happening. After all, 6 months was a long time and this had been all she could think about. She was distracted by amazing, blissful thoughts and, before Lorna even knew it, she was throwing her head back and grasping onto the couch behind her.  
"Oh God, Nick. Fuck. Nick." She moaned as Nicky drove her to orgasm.

Once she was done, Nicky slid her way up to give Lorna's lips one final kiss.

"Fuck, I missed that." Nicky said as she plopped down next to a very heavily breathing Lorna.

They lay there just holding each other for hours. They both had absolutely no desire to get up- they were finally together again and they knew they wouldn't get up for anything in that moment.

All of a sudden it hit Nicky _they were still in the living room._ Nicky immediately started laughing. "Kid, we couldn't even make it passed the first room in your apartment before we had sex."

"I never even showed you the rest of my apartment or anything." Lorna laughed. "Fuck, we never even had dinner!" Lorna realized.

"Ehh we can eat tomorrow. No way I'm getting up now. I missed you too much" Nicky said giving Lorna's chest another kiss.

* * *

As Nicky's eyes opened the next morning, she could not believe where she was. She was finally with Lorna Morello again. She had dreamed about sleeping next to her and holding her for 6 months and now it was finally a reality. As Lorna's eyes opened, Nicky couldn't help but give her a kiss immediately.

"It is so great waking up next to you, kid."

Lorna's face broke into a huge grin and she said, "I love you" before she could stop herself. The second she realized said it- she was worried. Sure, they had both kind of said it already. But "I do" and a desperate, crying "I love you too" in passing didn't quite count as a real "I love you" moment.

Lorna's eyes opened so wide and she immediately flung herself off of the couch. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that. We were having the best time, I don't wann freak you out. Can we just pretend that didn't happen? Please?"

"You love me?" Nicky asked still completely shocked.

Lorna quickly looked away. "Nick, I don't want to put pressure on you and ruin how great everything's going. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"I love you too." Nicky said. She couldn't help the huge, stupid grin that was appearing on her face. But Lorna was too busy worrying to even hear her.

"I'm an idiot. I can't believe I just said that! Can we just have sex again or something and forget about it?"

"Hey, motor mouth, are you even listening to me?" Nicky laughed

"What?"

"I said I love you too"

"Wait, Really?" Lorna asked totally shocked

"Yes, Really! Do you think I just cry when I say goodbye to anyone? No. I would only do that for you. I love you, kid. So much."

"You love me!" Lorna said with a big smile on her face.

"Yes I do. Now can you please come back over here? I really wanna kiss you, but you jumped so far away from the couch that I can't even reach you."

Lorna laughed and made her way over to Nicky. She plopped herself down and immediately started kissing her girl.

An hour and a half later, Lorna lay in Nicky's arms in complete bliss. Her stomach started to growl. "Fuck, we still never ate!" They both immediately started laughing and went to get dressed.

"Yeah this is never gonna work if we starve each other to death."

* * *

After that morning, Nicky and Lorna were completely inseparable. They spent every day and every night together. At first, it was just unspoken that they were living together, but Lorna wanted to make it official one day.

"Nick, we should look for a different apartment. You know, one that we both pick out I mean. Cause this one just feels too much like it's mine. I want us to live in a place that we both love." Lorna said nervously. She didn't know why she was nervous to ask this, they were basically already living together.

"Lorna Morello are you officially asking me to move in with you?" Nicky smiled.

"Maybe. I mean if it sounds good to you" Lorna said quietly. The poor girl was so nervous.

 _She's so fucking cute when she's shy_ Nicky thought. One minute Lorna could be going down on her while saying completely filthy shit, and the next, Lorna could be too shy to even ask the girl who was already living with her if they should find a new place together.

"Maybe. If it sounds good to you?" Nicky repeated, mocking Lorna. "If you are gonna ask me to shack up with you, I expect a better proposal. Now ask me like you mean it." Nicky teased her girlfriend.

Lorna immediately realizing that her girlfriend was teasing her for being nervous, decided to play along. "Fine. Nicky, would you like to find our own place together? I really love you and I love living with you and nothing would make me happier."

"Wow, so much better, babe." Nicky said as she wrapped her arms around Lorna's neck. Before leaning in and kissing her she said, "of course I want to get a place together. I never want to be away from you."

* * *

So they picked out a new apartment together so that they could officially call a place their own. They found a place they both loved and stayed there through everything. They lived there when they got engaged, when they started their married life together, and when Sophie was born.

Nicky loved it that she and Lorna were moving forward and had a family together. She loved both Lorna and Sophie so much and could no longer imagine life without either of them. She would 100% die for either one of her girls. So it's not like she was annoyed that Sophie wanted to be with them, in fact she loved it that their daughter wanted to spend time with them. It was simply just that she missed having so much alone time with Lorna.

* * *

"Of course I remember, Nick. I want that too. I promise, it's just you and me at bedtime from now on, okay? We can get Sophie to sleep in her own bed."

"Thank you," Nicky said as she gave Lorna a kiss.

* * *

The next night after they tucked Sophie into bed, Nicky left so that Lorna could have a little talk with their daughter. .

"Soph, I need you to sleep in your own bed from now on okay?"

"But I love sleeping with you and mommy."

"I know, Soph, we love it too. We love spending time with you no matter what- you know that. But mommy and I need some alone time together every once in awhile. You see, sometimes grownups have to be alone together because there are things about being an adult that kids just wouldn't be able to understand. So adults need to be alone sometimes to talk about things that they can't possibly talk about with kids. And the time that your mommy and I have to do that is when we go to seep. So your mommy just needs some time with me to talk about adult things, otherwise she might get sad. And neither of us wants mommy to be sad. So from now on you need to be a big girl and sleep in your own bed, okay?

"Okay. I don't want mommy to be sad. Tell her if she wants she can talk to me about her adult life."

Lorna smiled. "I'm sure she'll really appreciate that, Soph. We love you and we'll see you in the morning, okay? And if you can't fall asleep, you try to count the different animals painted on the wall. That always helps people fall asleep. Sound good?"

"Yes, mommy."

* * *

So Sophie successfully spent the night in her own bed and Lorna and Nicky were finally able to spend some time just the two of them. It wasn't like it used to be anymore, it would never be like that again. But it was even better than it used to be because now they actually had a life together and now they even had another person added to the mix who they both completely adored.


	23. Chapter 23

One Sunday morning, Nicky was busy making pancakes when she heard her cell phone ring.

"Baby, can you get that for me?" she called out.

A couple minutes later Lorna came into the kitchen with a sad look on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"Nicky, your mother died."

"Ma!?"

"Nooo your actual mother"

"Oh" Nicky said stunned, she hadn't even considered that it would be her real mother. She figured she should just be relieved that it wasn't Red and not really care about her real mom, but somehow she still didn't feel much better. She had no idea what to feel or say so she just stood there.

"I'm so sorry, Nick" Lorna went to give Nicky a hug when Sophie, who neither of them even thought could hear the conversation, came running in crying.

"Grandma died!?" she cried

"No, no, no, Soph. Not Grandma Red, hon. She's fine I promise."

"But you just said she died! I don't want grandma to die" she cried

They then realized that they had never mentioned Nicky's other mom to Sophie. No wonder this kid was so confused.

"Soph, Red is completely fine. Mommy's real mom got in a car accident and it didn't turn out well, but Red is fine we promise." Lorna assured her daughter.

"Red's not your real mommy?" she asked Nicky completely confused.

Nicky took a deep breath as she contemplated how to go about explaining this to her daughter.

"Well, when I met Red she just kinda took over as my mother since my real mother wasn't very nice to me. See, I didn't really grow up with a mom in the house who took care of me like you did because my mom was such a piece of-" Nicky stopped as she remembered who she was talking to. "She wasn't a good mother. She was never around. She always left me with nannies. She just didn't really care about me. So when I met Red, she took over so that I could have a mom who cared about me"

"Why didn't your mommy care about you?"

"I don't know, kid. I really have no idea."

"So are you sad cause your mommy was mean to you?"

"At the time I was, but now I have Red and you know how much she loves all of us. And I have you and your mommy. Everything is great now, so I don't even think about how sad I was before."

"I'm glad you're not sad anymore. I don't want you to be sad."

"Thanks Soph"

Sophie was silent for a moment as she looked like she was really thinking things through.

"Hey, mommy?"

"What's up, kid?"

"Thanks for not leaving me with nannies. I don't think I'd like that"

"You don't have to thank me for that kid. I'd miss you way too much if Ieft you with a nanny."

"You're a very good mommy"

Nicky immediately smiled so wide. "Yeah? That's so good to hear, kid. In fact, that may just be the best compliment I've ever gotten. You made my day so much better. Can I have a hug."

So Nicky began to hug her daughter and whispered "Soph, I love you so much. You have no idea"

Lorna watched and smiled as her two favorite people shared a moment. Nicky started to get teary eyed eventually when she was no doubt starting to process what had happened. Lorna sensed that she had to get rid of Sophie so that her wife could get emotional if she needed to.

Come on, Soph, how would you like to go spend the day at Red's?

"YEAH!" she exclaimed as she excitedly ran to get her coat.

* * *

After driving her to Red's, Lorna came home to find Nicky watching a movie in bed.

"What are we watching? She asked as she scooted up next to her wife.

"Who knows- just some crappy film. It's just the channel that was already on."

They laid there in silence for a little while.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No. I really, really don't."

"Okay." Lorna shrugged.

"Just. Can you keep lying with me for awhile?"

"I can lie with you for as long as you want, baby."

She snuggled up closer to Nicky and whispered, "Anything you want- I'm here, okay?"

Nicky nodded with tears in her eyes. Clearly not wanting to cry. That woman didn't deserve her tears.

"I'm always here for you" Lorna whispered again as she held Nicky tight.

One tear slowly traveled down Nicky's cheek. It was the only tear she'd ever let loose over this situation and Lorna was right there to quickly wipe it away and give her cheek a kiss.


	24. Chapter 24

It had been a really nice day. Sophie was really enjoying Kindergaten and Nicky and Lorna definitely loved hearing about it. Sophie could not stop talkikg about her new best friend Tracey. All throughout dinner it was "Tracey said this" and "Tracey likes this" and "Tracey wants to come over for a playdate". Nicky and Lorna were now getting ready to tuck Sophie into bed.

"Tracey doesn't like her new little brother. She says he cries too much."

Lorna and Nicky laughed. "Yeah babies do that, kid. It's pretty much all they do for months. She better get used to it."

"Tracey says if I don't want a baby here I should warn you to be careful. So be careful because I definitely don't want a baby to come here."

 _Be careful about what? What does she know?_ Nicky immediately thought, but wouldn't dare ask her.

"You don't have to worry, Soph. We don't want another baby, you're enough of a handful all on your own" Nicky teased.

"But Tracey said her parents didn't want a baby either. They said they didn't mean to have another baby."

"Trust me, Soph, you don't have to worry, okay?"

"Just don't ever forget a condom!"

"What?" Nicky was shocked that Sophie even knew that word.

"Tracey said her parents forgot a condom then boom there was a baby."

 _This kid is going to slowly kill me_. Nicky was thinking. She had zero idea what to say to that. Luckily for her Lorna took over.

"Who told you what condoms are?"

"No one. Tracey just said if you forget them, you get babies. What are they? I don't really get it. What if I forget to bring a condom with me somewhere? I don't want to have a baby!"

Nicky couldn't help but laugh a little bit.

"Condoms are something that you don't have to worry about for a very, very long time, okay? Now get some sleep and stop worrying about this. I promise you we are not having another baby."

Nicky and Lorna kissed Sophie good night and practically ran out of her room.

"Did that really just fucking happen?" Nicky laughed.

"Oh God. That was awful! She's 5 why has she heard of condoms!"

"Fucking Tracey. That kid is bad news."

"Nick, she's 5 years old. She doesn't even know what she's saying. She's probably just repeating a conversation she overheard. Her parents just need to learn to talk about this stuff more quietly."

"Yeah and clearly they need to learn to use condoms." Nicky joked.

As Lorna walked into the kitchen, Nicky called out

"Hey, Lorna, don't forget to bring condoms with you when you go places! You don't want a baby do you?"

They both burst out laughing. Little kids can be so funny sometimes.

* * *

The weekend had finally arrived and it was time for Lorna's birthday. Franny, Alex, Piper, and Red were coming over for dinner to celebrate. Franny just had another baby so, of course, the baby was there too. Everyone was having lots of fun passing him around and Sophie wanted a turn too.

"Aunt Franny can I please hold him? I'll be super careful!"

"Of course you can! Why don't you sit down on the couch and I'll put him in your lap for you."

So Sophie sat down and very carefully held her new baby cousin.

"Woah he's so little!"

"Yes he is. He's only 3 weeks old, though, he'll get bigger."

"So did you want to have a baby or did you just forget to bring a condom somewhere?"

Immediately, everyone in the room started laughing hysterically with the exception of Lorna and Nicky who just looked completely mortified.

Yeah they were going to have to have a good, long talk with her after after everyone left and they couldn't think of anything that sounded worse.

 _Fucking Tracey_ Nicky thought. She knew that girl was trouble.


	25. Chapter 25

Sophie was adjusting to Kindergarten very well. She had made lots of new friends. She loved her teacher. She even loved the school activities. There were different arts and crafts for them to do each day and she loved the books her teacher would read. She could not have had a smoother transition into grade school. That's why tonight's dinner conversation came as such a shock to Nicky and Lorna.

"Come on in, Sophie, your dinner is gonna get cold." Lorna called out to her daughter.

Sophie stomped in with a scowl on her face.

"Uh-oh bad mood?" Nicky noticed.

No answer

"What's wrong, Soph? Do you feel sick?"

"No"

"Okay so eat your dinner then. Maybe that'll cheer you up."  
"I'm not hungry"

"You're not!?" This immediately got Nicky and Lorna's attention. Sophie was always hungry. Even last month when she had a stomach virus and was constantly throwing up, she still wanted to eat everything in sight.

"Sophie, what's the matter, hon? Please tell us. We can help if you just tell us what it is." Lorna explained.

"Nothing."

Lorna sighed. If Sophie wasn't willing to talk, there was nothing they could do.

* * *

As they were helping Sophie get ready for bed, they noticed her school folder was still out on the kitchen table.

"Soph, you know the drill by now. Put your folder back in your backpack so that it's ready for tomorrow." Nicky said.

"But I don't wanna go to school tomorrow."

"Soph, you love school! Don't you wanna see Tracey? I thought you do arts and crafts together. C'mon, I can't wait to see what you guys make tomorrow!"

"Please mommy I really don't want to." She pleaded.

"Kid, why don't you want to go to school all of a sudden? Did something happen?"

No answer.

"Do you still like your teacher?"

Sophie nodded.

"Is Tracey being mean to you?"

Sophie shook her head no.

"Are you having trouble with the school work? Do you want us to give you extra help with it at home?"  
Sophie shook he head no.

"Then I don't get it, Soph. As of yesterday you loved school. What changed?"

No answer.

Nicky and Lorna just sat there for about 10 minutes staring at Sophie trying to figure out what was wrong. Eventually, they just kissed her goodnight and tucked her in hoping that by tomorrow things would be better.

* * *

The next morning, Nicky woke Sophie up and Lorna put a bowl of cereal on the table. They expected Sophie to fight them about waking up and getting ready for school, but surprisingly she didn't. Her appetite seemed to be back because she finished her cereal in 2 minutes. It wasn't until it was time to walk to the bus that there was a problem.

"Hurry up, Kid, you're gonna miss the bus."

"I don't wanna go" she started whining.

"Soph, you have to go to school. Everyone has to go to school. You're no different."

Sophie began to cry.

"Please mommy! I can't go! Please!"

They could not believe Sophie was getting so upset.

"Kid, please don't cry. Can you just tell us why you're so upset?"

No answer.

"Soph, I hate it that you're so sad, but you can't stay home. Mommy and I have to go to work and you can't stay home alone. Come on let's walk to the bus. Maybe you'll feel better once you're there."

"NO!" she immediately shouted. "Please don't make me go on the bus!"

"Oh it's the bus that's making you upset? What happened on the bus?"

"I'm the only little kid" she cried. "It's all older kids and they laugh at me cause I'm so little. I don't like it." She kept crying.

Lorna and Nicky just looked at each other. They had absolutely no idea what to do. Sophie had to go to school, but they couldn't make her go on a bus where she would get pick on. They just couldn't do that to her.

After another long minute of Sophie crying in fear, Nicky finally answered.

"I'm gonna call my boss and tell him I'm sick and can't come into work today. I'll drive you to school today and pick you up when it's over, okay Soph. We'll figure something out for the other days.

"So I don't have to go on the bus?"

"No, Kid. I wouldn't make you do that."

"Thank you," she muttered through her tears as she hugged both of her moms.

Nicky and Lorna both felt sick to their stomachs. What gave older kids the right to pick on their little girl just because she was younger? Nicky was getting so heated. _Those little fuckers. They're only like 9 and 10 years old and they already think they're hot shit._ Nicky wanted to strangle those kids. Lorna gave her a knowing look as if to say _Nicky these kids aren't worth it. You would go back to Litchfield if you did anything to them._ So Nicky just kept hugging her daughter and pretended that she wasn't ready to march onto the bus right now and teach those kids a lesson.

* * *

Later that day as Sophie was playing in her room, Nicky and Lorna had a talk.

"I don't know what to do, I can't keep taking off of work." Nicky said.

"I know, babe. I'm gonna see if I can get my hours switched so that I can go in an hour later every day and just drive her to school on my way to work."

"Yeah, but then how would she get home? The point of you going to work so early every day is that you're then always home early enough to be in the house when Sophie gets home."

"Shit, I didn't think about that. Ughhhh. Nick, I don't know what to do. She's such a happy kid in every other way. I can't just put her on a bus every day knowing that she's crying the whole time."

"No, I can't either."

Then Nicky got an idea. She dialed Red's number.

"Hey, mommy. We have a little situation."

So she explained what happened.

"So I was wondering if a couple days a week you could just put someone else in charge of the restaurant for like an hour and pick Sophie up? You can even bring her back to the restaurant and I'll pick her up from there when I'm on my way home."

"Of course I can. I can pick her up all 5 days and bring her to my restaurant. It's no problem I have enough people working for me. She'll love it, she can have great restaurant snacks every day."

Nicky let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, ma! She is so lucky to have you. Really, thank you!"

"You know I love spending time with my granddaughter. This is as good for me as it is for her."

They both excitedly went to Sophie's room to share the news. They were so excited that they were actually able to solve their kid's problem.

"Great news, kid. Mommy is gonna to drive you to school every day and grandma will pick you up and bring you to her restaurant. You can hang out and eat there until I pick you up."

"So no more bus!?" she said full of excitement.

"No more bus."

"Yay!"

"See, Soph. All you have to do is tell us what's wrong and we can fix it. Just let us know next time something makes you upset, okay?" Lorna said.

"Okay mommy."

So from that day on, Sophie got to spend a lot more quality time with her grandmother. She would eat so much every afternoon at Red's that she was barely hungry for dinner, but Nicky and Lorna couldn't complain. It's not like she wasn't eating enough, she still ate a ton, and at least their little girl was happy again. Finally, kindergarten was a place that she loved again.


	26. Chapter 26

"And this week is music week and so today for art we made mockas." Sophie was filling Nicky in on her day during their daily drive home from Red's restaurant.

"Mockas?"

"Yes"

"I don't know what that is."

"You shake them."

"Okay? How did you make them?"

"We put beads into something and then Ms. Crane closed it."

"Alright, kid, you're gonna have to show me because I have no idea what mockas are."

So Sophie fished through her backpack and proudly pulled out her art project.

"OH maracas!" Nicky laughed when she saw what Sophie had made.

"Yeah and so there are songs all week and we get to shake the mockas during it."

"Maracas, Soph."

* * *

When they got home, Lorna was already making dinner.

Sophie immediately ran into the kitchen to tell her about her day.

As Nicky slowly walked in she heard their conversation.

"And so today for music week we made mockas"  
"What?"

"Maracas. She made maracas" Nicky laughed as she entered the room.

"Ohhh" Lorna laughed. "That's so cool, Soph! Let me see!"

As Sophie proudly pulled out her art project again Nicky gave Lorna a quick kiss hello.

"How was your day, baby?"

"It was okay I guess. I've felt kind of sick all day."

"Yeah? What's the matter?"

Before Lorna could answer Sophie started shaking her maracas very fast right in Lorna's face.

"Do you like them!?"

"Yeah I love them, Soph." Lorna said with a half smile. She was trying to be cheerful, but it was clear se didn't feel well.

"Wait, so baby how don't you feel well."

"I've had a pounding headache all day." Lorna said wincing at the noise Sophie was making.

Nicky started to laugh. "Okay enough with the maracas, Soph. Save them for school tomorrow."

* * *

In the middle of the night, Nicky woke up to the sound of Lorna throwing up.

"Aw, baby you really don't feel well, huh?" Nicky said as Lorna came back to bed.

"Yeah I think I probably have to call in sick tomorrow."

Suddenly Lorna started shivering.

"I bet you have a fever. Here take your temperature." Nicky said looking through her drawer for a thermometer.

So Lorna put the thermometer in her mouth and found out that she did indeed have a pretty high temperature.

"Aw, come here, babe. I'll make you feel better."

"Nick, I was just throwing up you don't want me cuddling up with you."

"Of course I do."

"Nick, that's ridiculous."

Nicky just patted the bed right next to her. "Get your sexy ass over here."

So Lorna reluctantly cuddled up next to Nicky.

"See that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Nicky held her wife until she stopped shivering and fell asleep.

* * *

The next day Lorna stayed home alone. At first she loved the alone time. She loved the peace and quiet. But after a nap and about 3 crappy daytime shows, she had definitely had enough of it. She was so bored she thought she was going crazy. For the final hour and a half until Sophie and Nicky came home she looked at the clock every 2 minutes. Time was moving so slowly. That's why when they finally did come home all she wanted to do was be with them.

"YAY!" she cheered as her family walked through the door.

Sophie immediately put her backpack down and then ran towards her room.

"What? No hug?" Lorna asked disappointed when Sophie started running away.

"Mom, I really can't get sick! It's music week!"

"So I don't even get a hug?"

"No I can't"

"But I missed you"

"Sorry mom. It's music week." Sophie ran away toward her bedroom singing the song she had just learned in school.

Nicky just stood there cracking up.

"Ooh rejected by a 6 year old. That must hurt."

Lorna rolled her eyes. "So are you gonna now reject me too?"

"Woah who said I'd ever reject you."

Nicky inches her way over to Lorna and leans in for a kiss hello, but Lorna stops her.

"No, nick. I don't want to get you sick."

"You just asked me to come over!"

"I just meant for a hug. You can't afford to get sick right now."

"C'mon, I wanna kiss you!"

"Nicky you've had a lot doing at work lately you're gonna be screwed if you get sick!"

"I'm not gonna get sick, it's okay"

"Yes, you are. You already risked it by holding me for so long last night. I'm not risking it any further. You're gonna get sick and-"  
Nicky cuts her off with a big kiss, much to Lorna's surprise. When she finally breaks the kiss, Lorna is left with a big, stupid grin on her face.

"You were saying?" Nicky asks with a smirk

"Um that you probably shouldn't have done that."

"Ehh, who cares. It's not music week at work for me. I can risk it."

When Nicky got sick, Lorna made her soup and took care of her. Music week at school was finally over, but for Sophie it lived on. The kids had received a CD of all of the songs they learned, and Sophie sat at home singing the songs and shaking her maracs for 3 days straight while Nicky sat there in complete torture trying not to puke. Nicky thought about hiding her maracas, but settled instead for deciding to save them and shake them profusely when Sophie was much older and had her first hangover. "That'll teach her not to bug me when I'm sick AND not to drink. What a great fucking plan." she told Lorna, who just laughed at her and sarcastically said, "alright, Nick, you do that."


	27. Chapter 27

For Sophie's birthday Alex and Piper had gotten her this doctor board game that includes a fake doctors kit with everything imaginable. Sophie loved it. She played it with her friends when they would come over. She started putting it in her backpack to play with Red after school. She played it with Lorna and Nicky over and over again until they were both so sick of it that they couldn't take it anymore. Sometimes she would even just take the fake thermometer or fake stethoscope out and pretend she was examining one of her moms without even playing the board game part of it. One day Alex had come over to spend the day with Nicky and when she walked in Nicky was lying down on the couch pretending to be examined by Sophie. Nicky had an annoyed look on her face by the end of it because it was probably the 5th time that day that Sophie wanted to play doctor.

"Wow, Soph, I'm so glad we got you this! It looks like your mom is really enjoying it" Alex said laughing when she came in.

Nicky made sure Sophie was looking away and then proceeded to flip her friend off.

One day, Sophie was having a play date at Tracey's house and so Lorna and Nicky were alone. As they walked passed Sophie's room they saw the box to the game out on her bed.

"I am so fucking sick of that thing! I can't play it anymore with her. I'm done I really can't."

Lorna started laughing at how frustrated her wife was.

"Aw, but you look so cute when you play that game! I love it whenever you end up wearing the little nurse hat!"

"Yeah you like that?" Nicky said immediately making the conversation sexual because of course her mind always goes back to sex.

"Yeah, it's so hot." Lorna said as she caught on.

So Nicky went and put the nurse's hat on.

"Get on the couch. You need to be looked at immediately. You're going to have to strip your clothes off for this."  
So Lorna took her shirt and bra off and ran over to the couch. Nicky started kissing her hard. She kissed, licked, and bit at that special spot on her neck, causing Lorna to moan with pleasure. She kissed her everywhere, giving extra special attention to Lorna's boobs of course. Just as she was driving Lorna insane by gently biting at her nipple, they heard the door open.

"Fuck" Nicky whispered as she moved directly on top of Lorna so that Sophie couldn't see that Lorna was topless.

"Hi!" Sophie said cheerfuly as she walked in. "What are you guys doing?" she asked completely confused when she saw her mothers on the sofa.

"Uhh we're playing doctor"

"Ooh can I play too?!"

"NO!" they both immediately scream.

"Um, I mean you were outside running around all day you have to take a shower first." Nicky said in an effort to get Sophie to drop the subject and leave.

"Oh, okay. Can we play later?"

"Yeah, probably. Go take a shower and we can talk about it later"

When Sophie walked away Nicky gave Lorna one final kiss.

"I'll finish this examination tonight. You are in no way off the hook." Nicky whispered with a wicked smirk on her face.


	28. Chapter 28

It was summertime and Nicky, Lorna, and Sophie were over at Franny's house for a barbeque. Sophie was running around with Franny's kids while Nicky, Lorna, and Franny sat talking. It was a hectic night because everything over at Franny's was always hectic. One of Franny's kids almost ran into the grill and her youngest girl was crying because she got stung by a bee. But it was also definitely a fun night. Sophie always loved playing with her cousins. Nicky even jumped into their game of frisbee for a little while. Lorna and Sophie both stuffed their faces with so much watermelon that they almost got sick.

"This has been so much fun! You know what? We were thinking of going to the beach next week. My friend was going to let me use her beach house since she won't be there. You guys should totally come! The kids would love it!"

Nicky cringed at the idea of spending an entire week with this kind of chaos, but Lorna seemed to love the idea.

"Oh that would be great! We should totally do that!"

* * *

"So we're not really going on vacation with Franny and her wild monsters of children are we?" Nicky asked when they got home.

"Why not it could be fun!"

"Baby I always leave that house with a headache. There are way too fucking many screaming kids to think straight."

"Yeah but on vacation it would be different. They would be better behaved in someone else's house."

"Ugh there's just so many kids" Nicky whined

"What's wrong with kids?"

"I don't like kids."

"You like Sophie"

"Sophie's our kid it's different. She's basically just a mini version of you. That doesn't count."

"Well you can put up with the kids for a week so that we can go to the beach. Sophie would have such a great time!"

"When would I have a great time?" Sophie asked running in after overhearing the last bit of the conversation.

"On vacation with Aunt Franny and all of your cousins."

"OH THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!" Sophie immediately screamed. She started jumping around too excited to contain herself.

Nicky looked at how excited Lorna and Sophie both looked and sighed knowing that she was going to lose this argument.

"Alright fine we can go. But I'm not gonna have fun."

"That's the spirit, Nick. At least you're going into it with the right attitude."

When they arrived at the beach house it was already a mess. There were clothes and towels everywhere. Franny was busy trying to tie her bikini top while one of her kids was whining because she got sunscreen in her eye. Matt, the oldest boy, was kicking a soccer ball into the wall repetitively. Nicky took in the sight in front of her and immediately regretted giving in. _This is gonna be the longest fucking week ever._


	29. Chapter 29

"Get me out of here" Nicky whispers to Lorna as she takes in the chaotic sight in front of her.

"Shhhh. Be nice" Lorna warned before she runs to hug her sister.

"Wow, Franny, this place is so nice! I love it here already!"

"I know isn't it great!? Let me show you guys your room. Soph, you're gonna be sharing the room with Molly and Maddie"

Sophie excitedly cheers with her cousins about sleeping in the same room "yay it's like we're having a sleepover all week!"

"Here's your room! Make yourselves at home. We're heading over to the beach you guys can come join us whenever you're ready!" Franny says as she leads Nicky and Lorna to their room.

* * *

Nicky liked her room. It was the farthest room from the living room so it was the quietest room they could get.

Franny left to go to the beach as Nicky and Lorna put their bags down.

"Ahh here's the part of this vacation I'm gonna like" Nicky said as she flopped down on the bed pulling Lorna with her.

"Nick, you're gonna have fun I promise. I know Franny can be a lot, but you'll have me and Soph the whole time to distract you. Now c'mon we can lie down in bed later let's go to the beach!" Lorna gave Nicky a kiss on her forehead and jumped up to get ready.

As Lorna was starting to take her clothes off and look for her bathing suit, Nicky was still making no effort to get up.

"Ya know standing there with your tits out isn't really gonna help to make me get out of bed any faster."

"You see my tits all the time! Just get ready!"

"Doesn't mean they're any less enticing"

Lorna quickly put a shirt back on to shut Nicky up and speed the process along

"Aw come on that wasn't nice!" Nicky whined as she slowly got out of bed

* * *

The first night was a nightmare. Sophie sharing a room with 2 of her cousins was awful for the entire rest of the house. The 3 girls were ecstatic at the thought of sharing a room together and so they took full advantage of the opportunity. They were up for hours on end playing loud games where they were constantly screaming and running around. They were so loud that no one could get any sleep. Needless to say, Nicky was in an awful mood the whole next day. And all of the screaming children at the beach the next day did nothing to help Nicky's mood. She really cracked when one of Franny's daughters caused Sophie to fall over while playing frisbee. Sophie was completely fine, she just had a small cut on her knee, but that was the last straw for Nicky. Nicky rushed Sophie back to the house to clean up her knee while spouting off angrily about all of Franny's wreckless kids for the entire walk back from the beach.

Lorna knew that Nicky desperately needed some quiet time and she knew just what to do about it.

* * *

That night, once it was getting dark out Lorna knew it was time to begin.

Lorna took Nicky to the beach just the two of them for some much needed alone time. They laid down towels and Lorna took out a cooler where she had packed popsicles. It was nighttime so no one was on the beach anymore. They were truly and completely alone and it was amazing.

"I figured you needed some peace and quiet." Lorna explained as she handed her wife a popsicle.

"Wow you're amazing I needed this so badly." Nicky said breathing a sigh of relief that it was just the 2 of them again for a while. The two of them laid there holding hands and eating popsicles until all of the popsicles were gone.

"Hey come over here. You're too far away"

"Nick, I'm right next to you"

"I know but come closer"

So Lorna moved from her towel onto Nicky's and Nicky wrapped herself around her wife.

"Thank you, you always know exactly what I need." Nicky said giving Lorna a kiss on her head

"Well I'm glad it worked I want you to have fun on this vacation" Lorna said looking up at Nicky with popsicle all over her face.

Nicky immediately started laughing at how ridiculously cute Lorna looked with huge orange smears around her lips.

"What do I have something on my face?"

"Yeah I'll get it" Nicky said as she wiped the corners of Lorna's mouth with her finger and then proceeded to give Lorna a very, very deep kiss.

They continued to kiss for a very long time until Lorna couldn't take it anymore. She started lifting her wife's shirt over her head, but Nicky immediately stopped her.  
"We shouldn't do this here, you're not gonna want to get sand up your vag" Nicky explained.

"Let's go." she said pulling her wife up and dragging her to the first little shop they could find that would have a bathroom.

A very long time later they ran out of the shop giggling like teenagers. They felt so young and mischievous again having had sex in a bathroom. Momentarily, it brought them back to how they felt when they first got out of Litchfield and it was just the two of them and they were having sex anywhere and everywhere. It was exactly what Nicky needed.

* * *

So Nicky was in a much better mood after that night and managed to make it through the rest of the week without killing any of Franny's kids. In fact, she even had fun. There was one day at the beach that was particularly fun, though.

Lorna had such a fear of the ocean it was hysterical. She flat out refused to go in the water, so she just sat in a beach chair watching Nicky and Sophie play in the ocean instead of joining in. Every time a big wave would come, Nicky and Sophie would hear Lorna freaking out in back of them screaming, "please be careful!" After the waves would crash over them for a second they'd both look back and see Lorna covering her eyes, looking completely terrified. Nicky and Sophie couldn't help but laugh at just how ridiculous Lorna was being.

"Mom it's okay! It's fun stop worrying!"

"I'd just feel a lot better if the two of you would stay out of the water for a little bit. I'm having fun just reading! You should join me!"

Nicky laughed as she started rubbing her wife's back. "I know you're scared, babe, but you should really come be with us"

"Mom I want you to come! It'll be fun!"

"I'm sorry, Soph. I'll hang out with you later once you're done with the ocean."

Nicky knew what to do to change Lorna's mind.

"Yeah Soph, Mom's way too scared to come join us. She's a chicken she's never going to give in" Nicky said as she started to make chicken noises in an effort to mock her wife.

"I'm not a chicken!"

Nicky continued to make the noises until her wife finally gave in.

"Fine! But you need to hold on to me the whole time!"

"Sounds great to me"

So Nicky, Lorna, and Sophie walked towards the ocean. As soon as a wave came Lorna clung onto Nicky and buried her face in the shoulder as Nicky made sure she held a tight grip on her terrified wife.

Once the wave passed Lorna looked up at Nicky.

"Wait that was it? That's not scary!"

"I know!" Nicky laughed.

"Oh this is fun! Soph come on let's go deeper!" Lorna said as she moved further into the ocean. Nicky laughed and just had to give Lorna a kiss on the head for being so adorable.

* * *

A few hours later Sophie was building sandcastles with her cousins while Nicky and Lorna relaxed. Franny was flirting with some guy in the distance.

"Look at your sister sticking out her chest talking to that guy. Man she is such a flirt. It is not normal to stand with your chest out that far." Nicky said as she watched the guy in the distance look Franny up and down.

"Stop looking at my sister's boobs."

"Are you jealous cause I took a break from obsessing over your boobs for half of a second" Nicky laughed.

"No of course not. I know you're not into my sister. I just think she wants her privacy over there! We shouldn't be watching."

"Admit it you got jealous because I talked about someone else's boobs" Nicky said with a huge smile.

"No I didn't, Nick."

"Okay whatever you say" Nicky said as she leaned over to give Lorna a kiss.

The two women were silent for a minute.

"Hey do you like my bikini, Nick?" Lorna said motioning to her boobs, trying so hard to be subtle yet failing miserable.

Nicky immediately started smiling knowing that she had been right about Lorna's jealousy. "Baby you look so fucking hot in that bikini. Seriously if it weren't for all of these people around us I would I just rip it off of you right now"

"Really? I look that good?" Lorna asked with a smile clearly wanting Nicky's praise right now.

"You look amazing, baby. You always look amazing."

Nicky and Lorna shared a soft kiss.

* * *

So, that day was a lot of fun, but it still wasn't the best part. To Lorna, the best part of the week was when Nicky let all of the kids bury her in sand. See Nicky liked to tell herself that she hated kids, but she always managed to have fun playing with them. She looked so funny covered up completely in sand with just her head and huge hair poking out. Lorna laughed so hard and took so many pictures. 2 weeks later she was still trying to hide her phone from Nicky so that pictures wouldn't be deleted.


	30. Chapter 30

As Sophie continued to move on in grade school, Lorna decided that she should take part in some extra curricular activities. So, she stated playing soccer. She loved it right away and was actually pretty good at it despite Lorna's complete lack of athletic ability. The hot sperm donor they picked must have been athletic or something. She made her neighborhood travel team during her first few months of playing. Nicky and Lorna went to every single one of her games. They loved going to her games because Sophie looked like she was having a blast the entire time. They watched with such pride every time she would score a goal. They were so proud of their girl. They were a little bit too proud, though, and embarrassed the hell out of Sophie at one of her games. She scored the winning goal and Nicky and Lorna made such a scene that Sophie couldn't even look at them. Who would've ever thought that Nicky and Lorna would be such dorky, embarrassing moms to have.

* * *

Today was one of the last games of the season and it was a tough one. It was a very intense competition and everyone was playing their absolute hardest. Sophie was playing better than she had ever played before. Lorna and Nicky had never seen her sprint so fast before. She must have been sprinting too fast, though, because all of a sudden she toppled over headfirst into the goal. She wacked her head so hard that Nicky and Lorna could almost hear it happen from the sidelines. As they ran over, all they could hear were the screams and cried coming from Sophie. By the time they got to her she had completely passed out.

"Fuck, Nick, we have to get her to the hospital somehow"

Without wasting another second, Nicky immediately picked Sophie up and ran to the car. Sophie was getting older and was now harder to carry, but Nicky didn't even think twice about it. She managed to scoop Sophie up and run her to the car in record time. They drove to the hospital as fast as they could.

Sophie woke up in the car ride over. She woke up crying because she was in so much pain. She felt so nauseous that she threw up right in the back seat. The doctors ran all kinds of tests and found out that Sophie was fine. She had a concussion and would have to sit out for the rest of the season, but in the grand scheme of things, she was fine. Nicky on the other hand was a total wreck. Seeing Sophie on a hospital bed brought back the awful memories of when she had to get surgery on her leg as a baby. Nicky was fighting her emotions as hard as she could, but she could not stop the tears that were forming in her eyes. She hated how emotional Lorna and Sophie always made her. _It's not fair I don't cry with anyone else! I hate that I keep crying so easily._

When Sophie was taken for x-rays, Nicky completely lost it. Lorna rushed over to hug Nicky because she knew the kinds of memories that Nicky was remembering.

"She's okay, Nick. She was okay last time we were here and she's okay now."

When Sophie returned and saw Nicky crying, she was immediately alarmed. She had never seen her mom cry before. She always thought her mom was this superhero that never cried and never had to worry about anything. She desperately wanted to help.

"Mommy I'm okay. I'm sorry I scared you."

"It's okay, kid." Nicky said wiping her tears. "I'm just so glad you're okay."

"I love you" she said giving her mom a hug.

Nicky held on tight and said "Kid, I love you more than you'll ever understand"

Once they pulled away Sophie went to hug Lorna.

"Love you, mom."

"Yeah I think we'll keep you. We weren't sure for a while, but I guess you're worth it"

"You sound like mom when you say stuff like that" Sophie said to Lorna. Nicky immediately laughed knowing it was true. She had definitely rubbed off on Lorna over the years.

* * *

That night, after they were finally allowed to leave the hospital, Nicky and Lorna stayed up with Sophie until she fell asleep. They watched TV with her in her room and talked with her until she felt calm enough to finally go to sleep.

"Ugh when does this parenting stuff get easier? Like when do I stop having panic attacks any time anything happens?" Nicky asked after they shut Sophie's door.

Lorna laughed "Probably never. We definitely have years and years of panic attacks ahead"

Lorna pulled Nicky into a big hug. "You were amazing today."

"Yeah right I cried like a little baby"

"Yes but before then you got Sophie into the car so fast all on your own. I was standing there like an idiot with no idea what to do and you just immediately took action."

"Yeah well that's how it works. We're a team, we get to take turns having no idea what to do."


	31. Chapter 31

It was Friday night and Nicky, Lorna, and Sophie were sitting down to a nice dinner after a long week. Nicky had worked late every night that week because things were so crazy at work and all she wanted was to have a nice, relaxing dinner with her family. However, this dinner did absolutely nothing to help her relax.

"So what'd you do at school today?" Lorna asked

"Nothing really. We had a sub so we pretty much read and filled out worksheets all day."

"Aw, that's a shame. Substitutes can be so annoying."

"No it was great. He was so hot, mom!"

"He was what?" Nicky asked not sure if she heard right.

"He was so hot. I want my teacher to be sick all the time so he can come."

"Since when did you start thinking boys were hot?"

"Since they started looking like Mr. Tucker. So hot!"

"Okay I get it I heard you. He's hot. You can stop saying it."

Lorna started laughing "Nicky relax. Since when are you so uptight?"

"I'm not uptight."

"So tell us more about Mr. Tucker" Lorna asked full of curiousity. Nicky groaned when she realized this topic was going to linger all throughout dinner.

"He's really cool he said he's getting married over the summer. He fills in for the music teacher a lot cause he plays guitar."

"Oh he sounds really interesting!"

"Yeah! And there's this boy in my class who told me he liked me. And I kinda like him too so he let me sit with him and borrow his markers in art."

"Aw that's great, Soph! He sounds like a nice guy."

Nicky just sat there throughout dinner silently as she watched Lorna and Sophie gush over this little 10 year old boy who Sophie liked. She was in a state of shock. It was like she was physically incapable of joining in on the conversation.  
So Sophie walked away from that dinner happy and excited that her moms approved. Nicky, however, felt like she was going to be sick. Not because Sophie liked boys in particular but because she liked anyone in that way already.

"What the fuck she's 10 who starts relationship stuff this early!"

"Who said she's starting a relationship. She's crushing on her substitute teacher and sharing markers. It's not that big of a deal."

"Sharing markers is how it starts. Then before you know it they start having sex."

"You're insane!"

"I'm not insane this is dangerous stuff!"

"She's 10 she's not having sex she's not even kissing anyone!"

"That we know of"

"She's not kissing anyone, Nicky. I promise you."

Lorna began to laugh.

"What is so funny about this?" Nicky asked annoyed.

"I just never thought you'd be such a protective parent. You used to be the cool, laid back one. Remember that?" Lorna said laughing at how much her wife had changed.

"Hey I'm very laid back."

"Okay, so what if Sophie came in here right now and told us she kissed that boy with the markers?" Lorna asked as she watched Nicky literally cringe with disgust.

Lorna started laughing again and Nicky rolled her eyes. "Alright whatever you proved your point we can stop talking about this now."

But Lorna just kept laughing at how uncomfortable Nicky was with this subject.

* * *

 **Hey guys! Sorry that it took me so long to update I was in the hospital for about a week and then everything was crazy! But I should be able to update more often now!**


	32. Chapter 32

Lorna was getting a little bit teary eyed as she straightened Sophie's hair. How was time moving so quickly? How was she already getting Sophie dressed for her elementary school graduation? It seemed like yesterday that she and Nicky were sleep deprived because baby Sophie wouldn't stop crying at the fireworks on the 4th of July.

"Okay, Soph, all done. You can go look at your hair now."

"Wow it looks so good! Thanks mom!"

"No problem, hun!"

"Can I wear makeup like you?"

"I don't know, Soph, I think you're still a little young for makeup."

"Please! Just a little!"

So Lorna gave Sophie a tiny bit on blush and eye shadow and finished it off with some red lipstick.

"Wow I look so cool!" Sophie cheered excitedly.

"You look so grown up" Lorna said in disbelief.

When Nicky came home, Sophie ran to the door to show her how she looked.

"Mom look I'm wearing makeup!"

"Oh wow, you really are" Nicky said in shock as she looked at her not so little girl.

Then, Lorna came up behind Sophie wearing the same lipstick.

"Wow it's gonna be hard to tell you two apart. Which one of you am I married to?" Nicky joked.

* * *

The ceremony was very long. Nicky was bored to tears. They went through every single kid in the class and had the teacher talk about each kid. Lorna had to keep jabbing her in the arm to get her to stay up. She kept making jokes about how lame all of parents looked when it was their kid's turn. Nicky swore she and Lorna were so much cooler than all of the other parents in the audience. However, once it was Sophie's turn she, too, got really into the ceremony. As the teacher stood up to talk, both Nicky and Lorna were all ears.

"Sophie is one of the nicest kids I've met during my time here. She's always excited about everything, she has such a positive outlook on life. And she loves to eat! Any time we have a snack, she loves it. She's always the first to finish it too. She's the littlest, cutest girl with the biggest appetite. It's just adorable."  
Nicky and Lorna were smiling like morons they were so proud. It was true, Sophie was always the shortest kid out of everyone, yet she could eat more than everyone else combined. She was exactly like Lorna even down to the constant positivity.

Once she was handed her certificate, she ran off stage to go sit with her moms who could not wait to hug her. They were acting like such typical, dorky parents cheering loudly as she walked off stage. Nicky hated herself in that moment for how uncool she knew she looked. Yet, despite how much Nicky hated seeming like a dorky parent, she still couldn't help grinning like an idiot with pride as she held her daughter tightly on her lap throughout the rest of the ceremony.

* * *

As they were walking out, Sophie said excitedly, "Now I'm technically in middle school already!"

"Wow, you're right, kid. Damn, who can believe that?"

"You know what that means you have to teach me now right?" Sophie asked with a mischievous grin.

"Oh that's right! I'm a woman of my word so I guess that means I'll teach you tomorrow, Soph." Nicky said smiling once she remembered their deal.

"What are you teaching her?" Lorna asked.

"Mom said she would teach me to curse in other languages once I was in middle school"

"Yeah lesson 1 starts tomorrow, kid."

"Nicky!" Lorna protested

"What? I promised! I can't not do it now! We made that deal when she started kindergarten! I never thought she'd actually remember!"

Between Sophie looking grown up, getting rave reviews from her teacher, and wanting to learn more curse words, Nicky could not have been prouder in that moment. She hated to admit it, but the fact that Sophie remembered that promise is the thing she was proudest of. She knew that meant that Sophie wanted to be like her. Of course Nicky loved it that Sophie was so much like Lorna. There's no one that Nicky loved more than Lorna, so having a daughter who was basically a clone of the woman she loved so much was amazing. But more than anything she loved it that Sophie liked being like her too. She loved it when Sophie would copy something that she did because she knew that was her little girl wanting to follow in her footsteps.

She always remembered the first time it happened. When Sophie was only 4, she flipped off a man in a car who had cut Lorna off while they were driving. She did it because she had seen Nicky do it the week before and thought it was funny. Lorna was so upset that Sophie had picked that up at only 4 years old and she insisted that Nicky explain to Sophie why that was bad to do. Even though Nicky did what Lorna said, she secretly loved every second of Sophie mimicking something she did. So, when Sophie remembered their deal from all of those years back, she felt really special like Sophie was so excited to learn more mischievous stuff from her.

She went home and googled foreign language curse words because, sure she knew plenty of them, but she wanted to do a really thorough job. She would not leave any language out.


	33. Chapter 33

The summer had come and gone so quickly Sophie couldn't even believe it. She thought she had so much time off before she had to start middle school, but the time for school to start again came before she even knew it. She was so nervous for middle school. Not that she would admit it though. Sophie had never really been nervous for anything before. She was always a very well-adjusted person, so she was embarrassed to admit that middle school scared her. She would have to find all of her classes in that big building all by herself.

But it was already the morning of her first day of school and she was quickly eating her cereal and making conversation with her moms like nothing was wrong. She gave her moms hugs goodbye and smiled as she left so that she'd seem confident.

The school seemed huge. She could not for the life of her find her first classroom. All of the older kids were quickly walking everywhere with their friends without a worry. She was so jealous of them- she just wished this place was familiar to her already. She wished that she knew more people here. She didn't like that no matter where she looked she could not find anyone she knew. She felt like she was walking around forever. Her first class was so hard to find!

"Hey do you know where room 313 is?" She heard a voice say from across the hallway. It was the first person who had even bothered to talk to her since she walked into the building.

"Wait you're looking for 313?" Sophie said

"Yeah"

"Me too! That's the room I'm trying to find!"

"Oh wow yay! I'm so glad I have someone to walk with this place is so scary!"

"Seriously!" Sophie agreed. "Hey what's your name?"

"Oh I'm Allie what's your name?"

"Sophie"

"Well Sophie looks like we have our first class together all year. Let's find it fast so we can get seats together!"

"Okay!"

The two of them found out that it was much easier to find the room when they weren't all alone. Once they met up, they found the room in a matter of seconds. And, once they got into the room, they compared schedules and they had practically every class together!

As Sophie sat in her first middle school class she smiled to herself. She had already made a friend who she was definitely going to be spending a lot of time with. And she could walk to the majority of her classes with her so she wouldn't have to walk by herself again. Maybe middle school wouldn't be so bad after all.

When Sophie went to open her backpack she found a note from Nicky in it.

 _Hey kid,_

 _I know you swear that you're not one bit nervous for today. But I know you very well and I know that's total bullshit._ _So hopefully by the time you're reading this you're already feeling a little bit better, but if by some reason you're still not doing too well, I wanted to write this to cheer you up. So here's a reminder of some lessons you've learned from me._

 ** _1._** ** _When TPing the annoying old guy's house, don't wear flip flops._**

^^ (That had been a very funny story. Nicky and Sophie went to TP this old guy's house who they couldn't stand. Lorna was against it and warned them not to go, but they did it anyway. When the guy came out, Sophie tripped running away because she was wearing flip flops and the old guy caught her and called Lorna to tell on Nicky and Sophie for what they did.

 ** _2._** ** _Never sit on the bench outside of the park._**

^^ (Nicky sat on the bench in the dark and found out that it was covered in urine. Lorna and Sophie laughed at her the whole way home.)

 ** _3._** ** _Never tell Red about the time that we peed in the bush behind Target._**

^^ (Red had been totally grossed out when Nicky told her that and proceded to lecture Lorna, Nicky, and Sophie about it for 3 hours straight)

 _I love you, kid. You don't have to try to act tough around me ever. I hope this letter cheered you up a bit. Here's hoping that one of the boys in your class is "so hot". But don't tell me if anyone is because, honestly kid, it makes me feel sick to my stomach when you say that._

 _Love,_

 _The coolest, prettiest, smartest, most badass mom alive_

Sophie had the biggest smile on her face when she was done reading the letter. She was so glad she had been having a good day, but if she hadn't been that letter would have totally made the difference. She put the letter back in her backpack and got up to walk with Allie to their next class. Today was turning out to be incredible.


	34. Chapter 35

Nicky, Lorna, and Sophie were having a family dinner. It was just a normal dinner like always. Lorna tried to get Nicky to eat more vegetables. Nicky tried to jokingly put all of her vegetabes on Sophie's plate like Lorna couldn't see what was happening. Everyone talked about their day. Everything was exactly as it always was, when all of a sudden Sophie asked, "Hey, can I invite someone over for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Yeah of course you can! Who are you inviting, hun?" Lorna asked

"Uhh my boyfriend." Sophie said quickly as she avoided eye contact with both of her mothers.

"Boyfriend? Since when do you have a boyfriend?" Nicky asked.

"Um, since last week" she said embarrassed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was just nervous. But I figured I can't avoid telling you forever and he's been saying he wants to meet you guys, so how about dinner tomorrow night?"

"I'd love to meet him, Soph! I'm sure he's a great guy! I wanna hear all about him! What does he look like? What does he do? How did you guys start dating?" Lorna immediately became excited and started bombarding Sophie with questions.

So Sophie sat their gushing over her new boyfriend while Lorna listened intently. Nicky sat there and tried to look excited and happy for her daughter, yet she couldn't shake the feeling that she was going to pass out any second.

* * *

The next night, the doorbell rang.

"Hey!" Sophie answers the door and her boyfriend gave her a quick peck.

"So he's just gonna kiss her right in front of us? He's not even gonna pretend to be nervous about the fact that we're standing right here?" Nicky whispered to Lorna, but was quickly shushed as Lorna ran over.

"Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Lorna and that's my wife Nicky. I've heard such great things about you!"

The boy reached his hand out to give Lorna a proper handshake. "Hey, I'm Kevin"

"Well come on in! Make yourself at home!"

 _Make yourself at home!?_ Nicky thought. _She's gotta be going insane! We don't want him to feel at home, we want him to fear us so that he won't be quick to try anything!_ Nicky completely hated this entire situation.

* * *

Lorna was cooking dinner and Nicky walked past Sophie and Kevin who were snuggled up with each other on the couch. Kevin had his arm around her and he kept kissing her cheek, causing her to smile each time.

"Ughh" Nicky says disgusted as she walked out of the room to find Lorna.

"That is disgusting he like won't stop touching her! Can't he just keep his hands to himself!?" she said when she reached the kitchen

"Nicky, I think she likes it that he's doing that."

"Yeah I understand that she likes it. That's what makes it worse! They're like practically groping each other out there!"

"You're insane- do you know that? They're nice, innocent 15 year olds! They just like each other, that's all. It's cute!"

"There's no such thing as a nice, innocent 15 year old. Especially once they start dating. Do you have any idea what kind of shit I was already doing at 15?"

"Yeah, but you and Sophie aren't the same person. I don't think she'd do any of that for a while. Relax, baby. Just get to know him. Sophie likes him and I trust her judgment. I'm sure you'll like him if you give him a chance."

* * *

As they sat down to dinner, Lorna kept a nice conversation going with Kevin. Sophie kept looking over at Nicky, wishing that her other mother would join in on the conversation. So Sophie decided to make an effort to get Nicky and Kevin to talk.

"So, mom" she said looking at Nicky. "Kevin was saying he might want to get into business school eventually. I told him you could probably tell him all about that stuff."

"Yeah maybe. I don't really know how much help I would be. But I guess if you want to sometime we could talk about it"

"Oh okay yeah. That would be great! I'm sure it would help a lot!" Kevin said with a smile. He could definitely tell that Nicky wasn't crazy about him, so he was trying to be extra polite to change her mind.

"So, Kevin, what do you like to do?" Lorna quickly asked in an attempt to cut the awkward tension.

"I play football a lot. I'm actually in the middle of try out for the school team. I'm hoping to make varsity."

"Wow varsty as a freshman? That's amazing! I'm sure you're really good!"

"He's amazing, he'll definitely make varsity!" Sophie said smiling at her boyfriend.

"Just my luck she falls for a football player" Nicky mutters under her breath. No one could hear what she said except for Lorna, but it still earned Nicky a big kick from under the table.

"Ow! Fuck!"

Sophie and Kevin look at her curiously

"Sorry, stubbed my toe. That shit really hurts."


	35. Chapter 36

As the months went on, Sophie became fully adjusted to high school. Sophie and Kevin's relationship became deeper. The two of them were practically together every second. Kevin came over every day after school. He came to all of Sophie's soccer games. Nicky didn't like this because she, too went to all of Sophie's soccer games, so she then had to sit with Kevin and make conversation every time. One time, Lorna and Nicky both made it to the game and they were so glad they did because it was a very tough match. The score was tied up until the end when Sophie scored the winning goal. Lorna and Nicky were so proud, they were grinning from ear to ear. They could not wait to congratulate her. Just then, they saw Sophie run out to where they were standing. They both excitedly opened their arms wide preparing for a big hug, but much to their surprise, instead of running to hug one of them, Sophie immediately wrapped her arms around Kevin. Nicky tried her best to not look hurt, but she just couldn't help it. Lorna could sense Nicky's disappointment and immediately gave her wife's hand a squeeze. Nicky sadly looked up and said, "I miss when we were her favorite people"

During winter break, Nicky had the great idea of renting a cabin for a weekend and going skiing. Sophie, of course, asked if Kevin could come along, and Nicky begrudgingly agreed so long as Kevin slept on the couch.

The trip was really fun at first. Lorna couldn't ski to save her life and she kept falling every 5 seconds. Nicky kept laughing at how cute Lorna looked every time she fell into the snow. In fact, Lorna was so cute that it even distracted Nicky for a second and kept her from watching Sophie like a hawk, which is what she had planned to do since Kevin was there. Kevin kept reaching out to hold Sophie's hand whenever they got close and Nicky hated it every single time. Just keep you're your hands to yourself she thought. No one possibly needed to touch someone this much.

After awhile, she and Lorna took a much-needed break for hot chocolate. They sat in their cabin curled up in each others' arm trying to get warm. Nicky kept ranting about how gross Kevin and Sophie were with each other. Then, Lorna chimed in and said something that really made Nicky think.

Hey, Nick, we like to touch each other whenever we can. When you're in love, every little touch feels amazing. If Sophie feels about Kevin how I feel about you, then why can't you just be happy for her? Being in love is the best thing in the world. Wouldn't you want her to experience that.

You think she's in love?" Nicky asked in shock. She had never considered that her daughter could feel so deeply about this boy./p

Nicky realized that if Lorna was right, then she was being ridiculous. Right as she was about to answer Lorna, Sophie and Kevin stormed in. Sophie was in hysterics as Kevin carried her to the couch.

"Soph what's the matter!?" Lorna asked running over.

But Sophie couldn't stop crying long enough to answer, so Kevin chimed in.

"She fell really hard. I think she may have broken her leg. Here, Soph, let me get you some ice."

So, Lorna and Nicky did their best to comfort Sophie while Kevin ran to get ice. They hugged her, they cracked jokes, they did everything they could think of, but no matter how hard they tried, Sophie would not calm down.

As soon as Kevin came back in, he gave her a big kiss on the cheek and held her tight.

"I've got you, you're okay" he said while stroking Sophie's hair in an effort to comfort her. Much to Nicky and Lorna's amazement, Sophie calmed down right away. She was immediately soothed and started cuddling into Kevin.

See, what'd I tell you." Lorna whispered.

Nicky put her arm around Lorna as she looked at the giddy look on her daughter's face. Even Nicky couldn't help but smile.

"You're right, she's in love."


	36. Chapter 37

Another six weeks had passed. Sophie's leg had finally healed. Everything was back to normal- or so Lorna and Nicky thought. The 3 of them were just relaxing on a Sunday, when Sophie walked up to Lorna looking incredibly nervous.

"Hey, mom, I really need to ask you something. You're not gonna like it but I just need to."

"Okay?" Lorna says hesitantly, suddenly so nervous.

"Can I start taking birth control pills?" Sophie said quietly as she looked away.

"Um. What? Why?" Lorna asked in shock

"Ya know just in case. I don't want there to be a chance I'll get pregnant."

"Are you having sex?" Lorna couldn't believe it.

"No, no, no! I just want to be prepared in case we ever do" Sophie answered quickly, still unable to look her mother in the eye.

Lorna just stood there in silence, completely at a loss for words.

"I'm gonna talk to your mom, okay? I can't make this kind of decision without talking to her first."

"No don't tell her! Please? She's gonna be so mad."

"She's not gonna be mad at you, hon. She's not gonna love it, but she won't be mad at you."

* * *

"What? No fucking way! We're not getting her birth control pills so she can run off and fuck her boyfriend! That guy is a creep. He's gross, I mean just look at him! I knew he was gonna be trouble."

"Nicky I thought you liked him now."

"Well not anymore"

"Nick, she would eventually have sex with a boyfriend no matter who the boyfriend is. That's what happens. I don't think you should take this all out on Kevin. He's a sweet guy- he's really nice to her! Listen, I'm not excited about this happening either, but at least she's trying to be smart about it! And besides, they haven't even done anything yet. The pills are just for the future."

"Yeah right, you believe that? Kids don't ask to go on birth control pills before anything happens."

"She said nothing happened."

"mhm"

"She did you can ask her!"

"Okay, fine." Nicky knew how she could find out the truth. "Hey, Soph, can you come in here for a sec?" she called out.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Listen, I'm not comfortable with getting you birth control pills before you need them. I feel like it'll push you to do something before your ready. Once something happens, you let us know and we'll get you the pills, okay?"

"Um, okay." Sophie hesitated.

Damn I really need those pills! Do I just tell them? They seem to be acting kinda cool about the whole thing, maybe they won't flip out. She thought.

"Is there a problem?" Nicky asked sensing that Sophie wasn't ready to drop the subject

"Um no. No problem. It's just-" Sophie stopped

"It's just what Sophie?"

"I kinda do need the pills"

"Kinda? What does that mean?"

"We… already….ya know?"

Nicky immediately looked at Lorna. "See, I told you!"

"Sophie, hon, why did you lie to me?" Lorna asked

"I thought you'd be mad. I was really scared to tell you. I just want everything to be safe, but I was too scared to tell you so I figured I had to come up with something."

"Are you being safe? I don't want you going on pills so you don't have to use condoms. You always have to use condoms no matter what!" Lorna insisted.

"I know mom, we have been. We still will I promise! I just want to make extra sure nothing happens."

"Well if that's true then that's very smart of you."

Nicky who had been completely silent ever since her daughter's admission finally chimed in.

"Is this guy pressuring you? Cause I swear to God I will kill him!"

"No, mom! No! He's not doing anything. He would never do that. You know him! He's not like that"

"Yeah, I know him. He seems just like any other horny teenage boy. But whatever, as long as you and your mom seem so fine with him I guess I have to drop it." Nicky huffs as she leaves the room, totally infuriated with the conversation.

"I told you she'd be mad at me." Sophie said with her head down.

Lorna gave her a hug. "She's not mad at you, she's mad at the situation. You are actually handling this very maturely. I'm proud of you." Lorna continued to hold onto her daughter to make her feel better. "Your mom will come around. I promise."

* * *

"Nicky, you're making Sophie feel terrible!"

"No I'm not. She's so fucking happy with everything. All she wants is her boyfriend to come over and make her feel good and for her not to have to worry about anything."

"Nicky, she cares what we think, though! No matter how great she thinks this guy is, she still wants us to like him. That means something! Some teenage girls don't even care what their parents think. And now she thinks you're mad at her. She's all upset! You can't be mad at her for this, you knew it was gonna happen sooner or later and she's actually being very smart and careful about everything. We could not ask for her to be handling this any more maturely than she is. I'm not exactly thrilled with this new development either, but I am thrilled with how she's handling it. It's very commendable."

"She's gonna get hurt" Nicky said so quietly Lorna could barely even hear her.

"What?"

"She's gonna get hurt. She's obsessed with this guy, she's all googly eyed over him. She's having sex with him, but the relationship wont last, she's only 15. She's gonna get hurt."

"Nick, everyone goes through break ups. I'm not looking forward to seeing her upset either, but you can't stop it from happening. This guy treats her really well. That's all you can ask for."

Nicky let out a big sigh. "Okay, I'll go talk her." She absolutely hated this situation.

* * *

"Hey, kid, can I come in?" Nicky said knocking on Sophie's door.

"Yeah"

"I'm sorry if I made you feel bad. I'm just worried about you. I didn't mean to make you upset."

"Mom, I'm not gonna get pregnant, I promise."

"That's not what I'm worried about. You're handling that whole thing really well, actually. I have all the faith in the world that you're gonne be safe about it. I just don't wanna see you get hurt."

"What do you mean?"

"You're just so obsessed with this guy. If anything were to happen, and I'm not saying that it will so don't get mad at me, but if anything happened and you broke up, you would be devastated. You like him so much at this point that, however it ends, you'll be so upset. I just don't want you to go through that."

This made Sophie smile.

"So anyway, I'm sorry if I handled it badly. I just would hate to see you get hurt."

"Thanks mom." She says truly appreciative.

"No problem, kid. Oh and Soph?"

"Yeah?"

"If he ever does make you upset or if he tries something that you're not comfortable with, you let me know, and I will kick him in the nuts immediately."

Sophie laughed. "Will do, mom"

* * *

Later that night, Kevin came over.

"Hey guys", he waved as Sophie pulled him through the living room to her room.

"Hi, Kevin." They called out. Nicky tried her best to sound happy to see him.

They heard Sophie's door immediately shut closed.

"Um, Sophie?" Nicky called out.

"What?"

"Your door needs to stay open! I mean it."

"ughhhh" she heard her daughter groan. But nevertheless, the door opened.

Lorna laughed and gave Nicky a kiss.

"What? Do you think I'm being ridiculous?"

"No not at all. If you hadn't just said that I definitely would have. I was just thinking how glad I am that you didn't strangle him on his way in."

Nicky laughs "Yeah I'm practicing self restraint."


	37. Chapter 38

By the end of freshman year, Sophie was given bad news. Kevin's dad has gotten a new job and his family had to move 6 hours away. They spent so long deciding what to do, but ultimately they decided that with a 6 hour difference they would never see each other and they wanted to be able to enjoy the rest of their high school careers. So, as much as it hurt, they had to break up- at least for now. It was the first day of summer, and Kevin had come over to say goodbye.

Nicky and Lorna were trying so hard not to stare, but they just couldn't stop themselves from watching from the window to make sure their daughter was alright.

Through the window they could see Sophie all wrapped up in a heated kiss with Kevin

"I'm really gonna miss you" Sophie said, pulling away after a few minutes

"Yeah me too, Soph" Kevin said running his hand through Sophie's hair and pulling her in for another kiss.

Eventually, they heard Kevin's mom beep the horn on her car signaling that it was time for Kevin to go

"Damn, this sucks" he groaned

No matter how hard Sophie tried to fight it, she couldn't hold back her tears any longer.

"Aw, please don't cry, Soph. You're gonna make this so much harder"

"Im sorry" she says through tears

Kevin sighs and hugs her tightly. "Don't be sorry. This is just hard. I'm gonna miss you so much" he says as his voice starts to break

Sophie couldn't believe that Kevin was crying. She had never seen him cry before. This made everything so much worse.

After the 3rd beep they heard from Kevin's mom's car, the two of them reluctantly pulled away. "I love you so much Sophie" Kevin said in a shaky voice

"I love you too"

Nicky and Lorna, who were still watching by the window, saw Sophie turn to walk inside, so they immediately ran to the couch to act like they hadn't just seen everything. They didn't want Sophie to be mad or embarrassed that she didn't have the privacy she had wanted.

It turns out it didn't matter anyway, though, because Sophie came into the house hysterically crying, not even taking notice of her moms. She was too upset to care.

"Soph" Nicky says frowning, but Sophie just walked past them and immediately headed to her room.

"Fuck. This is what I was afraid of." Nicky said sadly

"I know, baby, but she'll be okay eventually. Let me go talk to her"

"No. I wanna go. Please. I've been annoying about this whole Kevin thing. I need her to know she can talk to me about it"

"Hey, kid, can I come in?" Nicky asked knocking on the door.

All she could hear through the door is the sound of her daughter crying, but eventually Sophie managed to mutter "fine" in between sobs

Nicky opened the door and took in the sight in front of her and immediately hated everything she was seeing. Sophie was lying face down on her bed, hysterically crying.

So, Nicky sat down on the bed next to Sophie and started rubbing her back.

"I'm really sorry kid" Nicky says sincerely

But, Sophie doesn't answer.

"He was a nice guy. At least you had a really great first boyfriend"

"You always hated him." Sophie said through her tears.

"No I didn't. I actually really liked him. He was always great to you. He treated you really well. You could just tell how much he cared about you. And I loved how happy he made you. I always loved seeing how your face would light up when he'd knock on the door. I mean, I wish it was still watching Sesame Street that made you so happy, but I guess that's not too realistic."

Nicky waited for Sophie to laugh at her little attempt at a joke, but soon realized that wouldn't happen, so she just kept speaking instead.

"And he was always nice to talk to. He was always polite to us. I just didn't like the fact that he was coming over to make out with my daughter. I'm sorry I should've handled it better. But, really kid, you couldn't have asked for a better first boyfriend"

Nicky waited a little bit longer for Sophie to chime in, but still there was silence. She figured Sophie didn't want her there so she stood up to walk out of the room. But then Sophie finally answered.

"I miss him" she said so quietly that it was barely audible.

"I know it's hard, kid. But little by little it will get easier. I promise.

"I love him" she said through a stream of hysteric tears

"I know you do, kid."

"And I'm never gonna see him again"

"Hey, you don't know that. He could come visit some time. Or you could visit him. You could end up going to the same college or going somewhere near each other and meeting up at some point. If it's meant to be you will see him again."

Nicky looked down at Sophie. Her crying hadn't let up at all. Her pillow was getting more and more drenched with tears and it made Nicky sick to her stomach to watch.

"Soph, I hate it that you're this upset. What can I do?" She pleaded. She desperately wanted to help her daughter feel better. "Do you want me to get you ice cream? The really disgusting kind you like with all the caramel?"

Sophie couldn't manage to speak, so instead she just shook her head no

"Cookies?"

And, again, she shakes her head no.

"Want me to make you mac and cheese"?

"Mom, I don't want food!" Sophie blurted out with a little laugh

"Was that a laugh I just heard?" Nicky asked relieved that Sophie was finally cheering up.

"No." she says with a little smile

"Ahh and she's smiling again! Who would've thought?"

Just then, they heard Lorna knock at the door.

"How are you guys doing in here"

"We're fine. You can come in if you want."

So Lorna walks in, takes a seat next to Nicky, and watches Sophie lie there in silence.

"Do you want us to get you ice cream or something, Soph?" Lorna asks causing Nicky and Sophie to both laugh.

"What?" Lorna asks confused

"Don't ask about food. She gets very annoyed when people ask if she wants food."

"Hey actually can you" Sophie starts to say something, but then stops herself "wait nevermind"

"What, Soph? You want us to get you something?"

"No, um, don't kill me but ice cream actually sounds really good right now"

"I'll go get some" Nicky said with a laugh. "Ya know if you weren't so upset right now, I'd take this time to strangle you"

A little while later, Sophie is propped up in her bed eating ice cream from the carton, while Nicky and Lorna just sit there and watch her.

"Do you want us to leave, Soph. We can if you want. We understand if you wanna be alone"

"No, please don't. I want company"

"Okay, Soph, we can stay as long as you want."

"I feel like I'm 8 again, like I need my mommies to keep me company all night."

"It's okay, kid, we get it. Don't worry we're not gonna tell anyone."

So they stayed there while she ate ice cream and fell asleep, then they walked out of her room quietly. The minute they shut her door, Nicky pulled Lorna in for a long, tight hug. This was going to be a really rough summer.


End file.
